Teenage pregnancy: Your thoughts?

Where I live and, it seems, all over the Western world, there is a disturbing rise of the number of teenage pregnancies.

It used to be a rather uncommon phenomenon back in the days (still 10 years ago) in my country but now I see it flourish and grow everywhere, You Tube and other webcasting sites becoming rife with videos about these teenagers searching for approval of their mistake by exposing their pregnancy to the world, claiming to be proud of being a mother. As if having a womb that works was so unusual that it had to be pointed out whenever it works...

Well, I don't know on the other side of the pound or anywhere at my neighbour's how this is perceived or dealt with but was it always this common or is it, as I believe, a new trend? (And a somewhat amoral one at that because babies are not fashion items)

What do you think? Babies Make Everything Better? Or are the last thing to think about doing when you're 13 or 14?

If I was living in the 1800's or earlier parts of 1900's it would be a shotgun wedding for the man who impregnated my daughter but in the case of rape I would just shoot the guy.

If it was my own son I would tell him to be a man and take repsonsibility.And point is babies are fun but they are a great responsibility to take care of so kids need to think twice before having sex or delibertly getting pregnant.Too many teenage girls don't have the resources to take care of a baby or the maturity.Believe me babies are the cutiest thing the world but will wait until I have a job and get married until I have one.

edited 4th Sep '11 7:48:26 AM by jazzflower14

Recall: In many cultures throughout the world, historically you would expect a sixteen year old to be married with children.

Wasn't the healthiest option, but it's not without precedent.

Bah. Utterly irresponsible. They are not even mature enough to take care of themselves, and they are expected to be fully responsible for another life? In fact, their very actions have shown them to be far less mature then their peers! All they are doing is propagating a vicious cycle, irresponsible parents raising kids to become irresponsible teenagers, who are far more likely to get pregnant at a young age, and sink deeper and deeper into poverty and becoming parasites of society.

Note: Not referring to teenage parents in past eras or in less developed countries, where teenagers are fully expected to act like mature adults.

edited 4th Sep '11 7:54:25 AM by Jauce

Not my problem (unless they start to use taxes to help them out). If they're to dumb to use contraceptions, abortion or think it's cool to get get knocked up at that age then they have to deal with it, although I probably feel a bit sorry for their children.

edited 4th Sep '11 7:54:00 AM by Lock

Irresponsible but even with protection accidents still happen so I can't condemn them too harshly for that, well so long as they learn there lesson from it. I do not see it as a moral problem or a sign that society is breaking down but it is an issue especially when kids are being born into an environment where they can't be cared for properly. I suppose if it is obvious they can't care for it abortion is an answer but it has to be their choice and I can understand why they wouldn't want to go through it.

edited 4th Sep '11 8:04:53 AM by PiccoloNo92

It's disgusting and a symptom of the cancer plaguing first-world. I guess they have a right to use their body as they wish, but it doesn't mean they should abuse that right. The best we can do is intensify education on the matter, offer free abortions to them, and exclude them from welfare if they choose to keep the child.

edited 4th Sep '11 8:19:35 AM by ekuseruekuseru

Oh, oh, oh, not just the First World...

Mexico seems to combine the worst of two worlds: the traditionalist idea that women must be married and with children at a very early age with the problems of the industralization and the transition to more liberalist society that put emphasis on the individual rights but not in the individual responsability.

We're leading the First World in its troubles and the Third World in its out-of-date ideas...

edited 4th Sep '11 8:46:54 AM by Anthony_H

I am very anti-abortion but I do think that teenagers shouldn't have kids until they are mature to take care of a baby and are married and financially good.I also know that some traditionalist societies don't always advocate young motherhood.

What what what. If welfare is a safety net, why would you be less qualified if you have a dependent?

edited 4th Sep '11 8:50:12 AM by DomaDoma

There is a difference between "not advocating" and "oh snap, I'm preggers".

No

People tend to forget what "the old days" actually were like.

The old days had their problems and the new days just remake those problems to appear new.

So we're in The Thermidor of the Sexual Revolution, I guess. That's good, but I really would like to live in a society where people generally refrained from sex unless willing to raise any resulting children together.

And no, that doesn't mean I want the sexism of the '50s back. I can pick and choose.

Yes. That's why I said, "it seems". Because I'm no authority in the matter.

edited 4th Sep '11 9:06:54 AM by Alrune

I don't know people kinda of exaggerate the 50's sexism it was sexist but not to the point they were comparable to Al Quaeda.However,I do agree that racism was a problem in that decade but that's another topic for later.

Yeah,teenage pregnancy thankfully are going down and people are realizing that babies take a lot of work to raise.

Oh, I fail. I didn't realize they'd been tracking since 1939; I just read the part that said it was down from '89.

Huh.

I don't know where you live, but...in the US, the CDC says the pregnancy rates have hit a record low.

And it's still higher than in other developed nations.

http://www.cdc.gov/teenpregnancy/

Are those figures TRULY reliable? And if they are, I said "it seems" for a reason. And the reason is because I wasn't sure so I didn't want to make an assertion. Because then the assertion would be incorrect. And if it was incorrect I would pass of as misinformed or bigoted or just supid. And if I'm stupid I wouldn't be seeking for knowledge because stupid people as a rule don't seek for knowledge.

Okay then, new question: Do you think it's something to be proud of?

edited 4th Sep '11 9:20:47 AM by Alrune

One can may be proud of his children but not of having children...

Most teenagers, especially the ones who have unsafe sex, are nowhere near responsible enough to raise a child. It's seen as dishonorable, I guess, to fob the kid off on relatives or whatever, but the kid will grow up with more attention and the mother has a better chance of graduating, so it's generally a better option.

The reason may be perceptive bias. It's easy to fan up some hysteria for some things.

If you want to question the CDC (and others) metrics, go to their next hearing. I really am not in a position to defend them.

And I don't know what you mean by "it" clearly enough to answer your question, but I do remember a certain media story about a pregnancy pact that turned out to really be about solidarity, not pregnancy.

Silly me, store instead of story.

edited 4th Sep '11 10:09:42 AM by blueharp

If you say I'm biased, it must be true.

Whose the it you're referring to and does this thread seems to be about bashing teenagers?

Nothing like that. I just asked for people's opinions and got called on a speculative statement, that I acknowledged was speculative, which is the "it" being referred to.

Just because I tend to speak my mind doesn't mean I want to bash everyone, thanks.