Over 500,000 American babies are born each year to unmarried girls under age 18. This includes roughly 50% of all American babies born to single parents of any age. Furthermore, about 80% of teenage mothers are from low-income families. These teen mothers cost taxpayers billions of dollars in welfare benefits.
Pregnant teens find themselves in a situation for which they are seldom prepared, either financially or emotionally. Many of these girls drop out of school, leave home and become dependent upon public welfare. If they try to find employment, they usually can get only the lowest-paying jobs, because they lack an education or do not have marketable skills.
The majority of pregnant teens do not marry the fathers of their children. The boy often abandons the girls after she becomes pregnant, leaving her with all or most of the responsibilities of the baby. In addition, teenagers who do marry have a divorce rate twice as high as that of older persons. The improbability of a lasting relationship with the baby's father causes special problems for the teenage mother and her child.
A pregnant teenage girl must make big changes in her life, especially if she decides to keep the baby. She must "grow up" quickly, take on new roles and difficult responsibilities and give up many of the freedoms and choices normally enjoyed by young people. While her peers continue their educations, get jobs, socialize and lead independent lives, a pregnant teenage girl usually finds that her options are limited.
Perhaps the saddest result of teenage pregnancy is the loss of human potential. Many mothers who became pregnant during their teens look back and wonder, too late, what their lives might have been had they not become pregnant so early in life. Their children, too, often have to struggle and find their potential likewise limited.
There are many reasons for the high rates of teenage pregnancy. Television and movies glorify sex and fill the screen with sexual activities, images and remarks, while downplaying the responsibility sexual activity requires. Parents often fail to explain the "facts of life" to their children. Some schools do not emphasize sex education to their students. As a result, many teens have learned myths rather than facts about sex and its consequences. Young people end up experimenting with and learning about sex on their own. This lack of information and understanding often leads to teenage pregnancy.
