Lets take a cultural plunge into the lives of teenage mothers.

**Steping away from political views. This paper was written for a multicultural class I took in college. The focus was pregnant teens, education, and Planned Parenthood.**

When looking at the microculture of pregnant teens and teen moms, you realize that although it is a microculture it is highly common in the United States. Through research, it has been found that teens in the United States are far more likely to give birth than any other industrialized country in the world. Granted how high teenage pregnancies are right now, they were even higher in the past. 

Researchers started to look at when the teen pregnancies began. “From the colonial era onward, Americans have always had a distinctly early pattern of family formation, at least compared with Western European nations. There has been great variation over time and place in the age of first marriage and birth, but local birth records, registries, and census data show that a substantial proportion of teenagers become parents before they reached the age of majority” (Teenage Childbearing as a Social Problem, 7). Prior to research, people would believe that teenage pregnancies were lower in our history, but it is not. Women were not given the resources that they are given now in order to decide what they want to do with their pregnancy, which is why teenage pregnancies are starting to decrease. 

Granted that teen pregnancies are high in today's times, rates of teen pregnancy, birth and abortion have declined dramatically in the United States since their peak in the early 1990s. As of 2017, there were 18.8 birthdays for every 1,000 adolescent females aged 15 to 19. There are plenty of reasons why teen pregnancies and births have been declining, the main ones being easier access to contraceptives and resources like planned parenthood. 

Starting with contraceptives, a contraceptive is defined as, “the deliberate prevention of conception or impregnation by any of various drugs, techniques,or devices; birth control” (Contraception). In the United States, contraception became legal only in the 1960. At this time, “the first oral contraceptive, Enovid, was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as contraception” (A Brief History). As the women of America continued to fight for their rights, the United States legalized birth control for all women in 1972. Contraceptives made a large turn in teenage pregnancies because now women had the ability to keep from falling pregnant by simply taking the pill. 

Over one million teens become pregnant each year. Within the next twenty-four hours 3,312 girls will become pregnant. The United States has the highest rate of juvenile pregnancies among any other country in the modern world. Although many statistics show teen pregnancies being the highest in the United States, teen pregnancies have lowered within the U.S.  In today’s society, teen pregnancy is lower than it has been in the past. Between 2008 and 2010 teen pregnancy rates declined. The CDC reports that in 2014, the birth rate for women aged 15-19 years was 24.2 per 1000 women, a 9% decrease from the previous year. Pregnancy is the leading cause of high school dropout among girls (Patton). There is 194,377 babies born by females 15-19 years old. A study found a dramatic decline in teen pregnancy rates among all racial and ethnic groups. For both non-Hispanic white teens black teens the rate declined 56%. For Hispanic teens the rate declined 51%.  However, wide disparities persist and rates among both black and Hispanic teens remain twice as high as the rate for non-Hispanic white teens. Over the past two decades within the U.S teen pregnancy rates have drastically declined. Much is believed due to the large push for development of contraceptives. These new contraceptives include more birth control options for women besides the pill, a sudden boost in the condom industry, and the development of the morning after pill (Global White). tells us that the U.S condom market was valued at 1.36 billion in 2016 and expects to reach 1.68 billion by 2022.  This shows how teens are taking more precautions towards safe-sex leading to the U.S decrease in teen pregnancy rates. Another factor to this decrease was the FDA’s approval to the morning after pill, Plan B, developed in the early 21st century. The pill is effective in reducing pregnancy by 95% if taken within 24 hours of unprotected sex. As we know, this a method that many teens submit to, due to the lack of knowledge in sexual education.  

One of the many places that women go to for reproductive help is a place called Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood is a non profit organization that people can come to for reproductive help and sex education. Planned Parenthood looks at themselves as, “a trusted health care provider, an informed educator, a passionate advocate, and a global partner helping similar organizations around the world. Delivering vital reproductive health care, sex education, and information to millions of people worldwide” (Parenthood). There are many things that Planned Parenthood can assist with and they are the reason why so many young women are not becoming teenage mothers, or are preventing the ability to become teenage mothers. 

Many people only associate the term Planned Parenthood with abortions, but they do much more that than. Planned Parenthood does all of the following, and then some: educate the public on reproductive health and sex, give birth control to sextually active females, supply emergency contraceptives, STD testing, pregnancy tests, pregnancy care, abortions, provide health and wellness for all genders, and testing and treatment for cancer. 

Planned Parenthood has helped many women and men take control of their health and help them with the resources mentioned above. An exclusive interview with CNN, Planned Parenthood gave statistics on their organization. “It has 650 affiliate health centers across the nation, including standalone clinics and satellite offices. The services offered at different centers vary. It estimates that 2.5 million women and men in the US visit its affiliate health centers for services and information each year, and its website receives 60 million visits annually” (Strickland). Here is a breakdown of the numbers that Planned Parenthood offered for it's services: “Planned Parenthood says 3% of the services it provides are abortions. In the year of 2014 323,999 abortions were performed by the organization, with 83% of their patients are under the age of 20. Aside from abortions, PP has provided sex education to 1.5 million people, and prevents a total of 579,000 unintended pregnancies with prevention and birth control” (Strickland). Some may wonder why these statistics hold such importance to the conversation we are bringing here. It is simple.

Planned Parenthood has provided resources for those teens who are trying to prevent pregnancy, or for teens who fall pregnant and find an answer at their clinic. This is why the percentage of teens that are becoming teen mothers has been going down, this is all due to the resources that they are given through Planned Parenthood. 

A big part when learning about teen pregnancy is hearing the story of a teenage mother herself.  For our project we interviewed three teen moms asking various questions about what it was like going through pregnancy at such a young age.  Although all three mothers come from very different backgrounds, all three seemed to answer the questions we asked in a very similar manner. Some questions we asked were: Was your pregnancy planned, did you consider any of the following: going to planned parenthood, abortion, adoption, and being a teen mom how do you feel about teenage pregnancy?  All three mothers said that their unplanned pregnancy was very hard to swallow at first. None of them knew what to do and were very scared of the future that lied ahead for them. Two of the teen mothers said they considered abortion while the third said she considered giving the child up for adoption. Through the massive amount of support the women received from their families, they made a final decision to raise the child as their own.  What we found most interesting about the interviews is the fact that all three women said they would not change their decision of giving up the child. Each woman said that although they had to make changes in their life, their child was a blessing and they could not imagine not having them around.  

Throughout the interview process the women shared some of the many challenges they faced going through the process of teen pregnancy and raising a child.  Some challenges mentioned were: economic problems, paternity support, and giving up their lives as teenagers. The hardest challenge of them all was the fact that the women had to set their futures aside and drop-out  of school. “I stopped going to high school in the 11th grade because of society & it was just hard with morning sickness to go to school and focus.

Having a baby definitely changed a lot I had a whole plan and to go to college and then get a good job but I am still currently trying to finish school and go to college. Everything just kind of get delayed for me.” - Almedina said when we asked her how her life goals changed after having the baby. The other two followed up the same question with, “My son has changed my goals completely. I was going to school for occupational therapy and was accepted into Missouri State where I was going to study. About a month before classes started I had to quit school.” and “I used to want to be making like 6 figures and just be rolling in money, but now all I really care about is having enough for my family.” Based off these three answers we can conclude that the future dreams of a teen mom drastically change from living a life of higher education to suddenly raising a newborn at home.   

In conclusion, life as a teen mom is not easy.  Hearing the perspective first hand made us realize the many challenges and sacrifices these women made to become the best mother they could under the circumstances granted to them.  

There are many things that can be done when looking at teenage pregnancy and teen mothers. We, as future educators, have the ability to act with early intervention with the students in our classrooms. There are many resources, like protection and planned parenthood, which have lowered the numbers of teenage pregnancies and teenage mothers, but the numbers are still high. Teaching sex education with our older and mature classes, will make sure that students are hearing it earlier than 17-20 years of age. “Teenagers who are uneducated about sex are more likely to have unintended pregnancies and the reason is that they do not fully understand the biological and emotional aspects associated with having sex. This is the reason why it is important and timely for school teachers to consider incorporating awareness and prevention strategies with respect to teenage pregnancy, in their curriculum” (--). Not only should we teach the importance of either protection or absence, we should advocate for those who decide not to listen. For the students who are in our highschool classrooms and struggling with pregnancy or being teen mothers, we need to be advocates for these students and make sure that we stand as a support system for those students. “There are other ways for districts and states to provide resources to teenage parents, either through financial support or through subsidized services. The Connecticut Department of Education, for example, provides a program known as the Support for Pregnant and Parenting Teenagers (SPPT) grant, which operates in the five districts statewide with the highest rates of teenage pregnancy” (Patton). We need to make sure that we are providing those students with a healthy relationship within the classroom, and help them understand that the situation may be tough, but you will help them get through it. If we see that our students are pregnant or teen mothers, understand when they don't read the 50 page journal you assigned. They may or may not have anyone to advocate for them, so we need to step up and do so. 

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