The Specter of Teen Pregnancy
Even while on the decline, the US has one of the highest rates. Why?
Teen pregnancy has become more than a plot line in teen dramas or a fear-mongering tactic among conservative Christians.
Source: ABC
Caption: A still from the ABC show “Secret Life of the American Teenager,” detailing the story of teenager Amy Juergens who gets pregnant in high school and keeps the child.
While all reports point to the decline of teens engaging in sexual intercourse — the 2020 teen birth rate has decreased by 75% compared to the 1991 rate — teen pregnancy is still a consequence of the United States’ patchwork approach to sex education and contraception information. Unlike similarly developed countries, the United States has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy. For example, in 2021, the Netherlands had a teen birth rate of 0.4% (2.5 births per 1000 teen girls). In a country where comprehensive sex education and fluid conversations between parents and children about sex take place, this is not surprising.
In 2021, the United States had a teen birth rate of 1.5% (15.4 births per 1000 teen girls). Unfortunately, teen pregnancies are overrepresented in communities of color; in 2020, the teen birth rate for Black girls was 24.4 births per 1000 teen girls and for Latine girls was 23.5 births per 1000 teen girls, compared to 10.4 births per 1000 teen girls for white girls.
Talking about sex here is much more nuanced and much more privy to religious conservatism. Deep-seated fears that comprehensive sex education would encourage youth to have sex (and children) outside of wedlock have driven the rise of abstinence-only sex education. Despite the hard proof that such education does not actually prevent teen pregnancy, it received substantial funding through the Title V Sexual Risk Avoidance Education grant program, administered by the Department of Health and Human Services. If anything, the funding of these programs increased throughout the 2010s. Currently, the grant program supports educational initiatives in 15 states.
The main criticism is that abstinence-only education does not factually prevent teens from having sex; in fact, over 50% of teenagers will have had sex even if they have gone through such programs. Abstinence-only education is taught through the lens of heterosexual relationships and fear of teen pregnancy, thereby excluding the teaching of safe sex practices to LGBTQ+ students. Abstinence-only education also does not effectively educate students how to report sexual abuse; by portraying having sex as a failure, rape or sexual abuse become even more taboo in these environments.
Education aside, one of the largest challenges that teenagers face today is access to comprehensive contraception. Abstinence-only programs promote abstinence as the only way to prevent pregnancy and thereby do not cover other forms of pregnancy prevention. In these kinds of environments, misinformation about contraception is quick to spread — and it makes accessing contraception even harder.
In an episode of “Our America with Lisa Ling” profiling teen mothers, teen mom Bryana shares that at school, rumors went around that taking birth control could make you fat. While it is true that weight gain is a side effect for some who take birth control, these kind of all-or-nothing rumors prevented Bryana and her boyfriend Amadeo from having safe sex, resulting in two pregnancies by the time she was 16.
Caption: Screenshot from “Teen Mom Nation: Our America with Lisa Ling”
Speaking of making things taboo, abortion is often not considered an option for those who become teen moms. My previous article went into some detail about how abortion has become increasingly difficult to access due to the passing of Dobbs v. Jackson. This has been compounded for pregnant teen girls. As total abortion bans increasingly become a reality across so much of the country, teen girls simply do not have the time or resources to travel to get an abortion. Many states are also instituting a parental involvement/notification process, which can be even more of a challenge for teens dealing with sexually abusive family members.
In a searingly poignant profile in the New York Times, teen mom G had to jump through multiple hoops to access an abortion. She did not want to notify her parents about her intention to get an abortion due to a history of abuse and volatility. She tried to follow the rules by petitioning the court, which led her to be counseled by Christian organizations to keep her children. Despite her multiple attempts, her petition to get an abortion was denied. The judge ruled that she was not mature enough to make this decision.
Source: The New York Times
Caption: A photo of teen mom, G. Knowing she wouldn’t be able to care for children, she had petitioned to get an abortion, which was denied.
At age 19, with almost no financial security, G became a mom to twin children.
While she had the option to put her children up for adoption, this is not always a path that teen moms are able to take on. It can be an emotionally challenging process that not everyone is interested in pursuing. Moreover, there is a very cruel, religious history of teen girls being forced to give their babies up for adoption as penance for out-of-wedlock sex.
Adoption as an option may not always work.
It is unsurprising that teen moms overall have worse health outcomes compared to their peers who do not have children at the same age. Teen moms are more likely to live in poverty and less likely to finish high school. Lack of access to economic opportunity can severely affect quality of life, which has an impact on both the teen mom and the baby she is raising.
Unfortunately, many teen moms are trapped in a cycle of poverty and teen pregnancy. Gerri, the mother of Bryana who was mentioned earlier, was also a teen mom. Her other daughter Jasmine, Bryana’s sister, also became a teen mom at age 15.
Source: City of Houston
Teen moms have a lot stacked against them — lack of access to proper education about safe sex and contraception, inability to safely access abortion care, and, once the baby is in the picture, challenge in maintaining a high quality of life.
But that does not mean that they are not able to.