Now that we all know some of the facts about teenage pregnancy, what are we doing to prevent it? I know that when I was in middle and high school, they only preached abstinence at my school. These programs aimed at education because "inadequate knowledge leads to unsafe practices." Some schools offer abstinence-plus education. This education preaches abstinence but acknowledges that teens may have sex and if they decide to do that, they teach contraception. When teenagers become parents at such a young age, a number of other problems follow as well. Teenage mothers are less likely to stay with and marry their babies father and this increases school dropout and poverty rates. Also, if a teenager continues to use drugs and alcohol during pregnancy or does not have the right nutrition, the child suffers. I'm sure you all have heard of Maci Bookout, teen mom featured on MTVs hit series Teen Mom. Here is an article on her view on contraception education and what she wishes would have been different.
Do all of you think that it is important to preach abstinence, abstinence-plus education or some other type of education that you have heard of?
I think it is bizarre that we are encouraging young teens to engage in sex with all these shows on MTV with 16 and pregnant and teen mom. Although at the end it does say that teen pregnancy is bad and you should practice safe sex but who is really listening. We do need to educate our children in school and also at home. Parents should take a role in letting kids know what is going on because its happening younger and younger and we can't keep avoiding it. We should be stopping it and not encouraging it. Kids are not meant to raise kids, they aren't ready.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, it is becoming very relevant and important to teach and "preach" about teen pregnancy. My little sister actually got pregnant when she was just about to graduate high school. She is a super smart girl, she had straight A's, but yet, being from a small town she just didn't really understand the implications of being a teen mom. While I was on the phone lecturing her she was responding saying things like how she is really excited to be a mom and its not going to be that difficult... etc. She ended up having an ectopic pregnancy and was really upset about it for about a day (simultaneously being mad at me because I didnt support her) but literally a day later she was telling me how happy she was, and how it was such a wake up call for her, and how right I was about her needing to grow up and live life before being a mommy.
ReplyDeleteHey Rebecca, great post! I'm glad you mentioned the different types of abstinent education programs, because honestly I thought it was either "be abstinent" or "here's a condom" type of thing, but I had never heard of abstinence-plus. Now that I know there's a name to it, I think my school taught abstinence-plus. Although there may be some political or religious factors behind it for some, personally I think this is the best way to teach middle- and high-school students about prevention of pregnancy. I think it would be ignorant of us as a society to not teach our younger generations about abstinence, since it is the most effective prevention of pregnancy however, I think it is equally ignorant and negligent of us to NOT teach other methods of prevention should they decide to have sex. This is a great topic and I'm glad you touched on it!
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