Facts
About Teen Pregnancy
The
United States has the highest rates of teen pregnancy
and births in the western industrialized world.
Teen
pregnancy costs the United States at least $7
billion annually.
Nearly
four in 10 young women become pregnant at least
once before they reach the age of 20 – nearly
one million a year. Eight in ten of these pregnancies
are unintended and 79 percent are to unmarried
teens.
Teen
mothers are less likely to complete high school,
(only one-third receive a high school diploma)
and more likely to end up on welfare (nearly 80
percent of unmarried teen mothers end up on welfare).
The
children of teenage mothers have lower birth weights,
are more likely to perform poorly in school, and
are at greater risk of abuse and neglect.
The
sons of teen mothers are 13 percent more likely
to end up in prison while teen daughters are 22
percent more likely to become teen mothers themselves.
Teenagers
who have strong emotional attachments to their
parents are much less likely to become sexually
active at an early age.
Most
people say teens should remain abstinent but should
have access to contraception. Ninety-five percent
of adults in the United States-and 85 percent
of teenagers-think it is important that school-aged
children and teenagers be given a strong message
from society that they should abstain from sex
until they are out of high school. Almost 60 percent
of adults also think that sexually active teenagers
should have access to contraception.
A
sexually active teen who does not use contraception
has a 90 percent chance of pregnancy within one
year.
A
majority of both girls and boys who are sexually
active wish they had waited. Eight in ten girls
and six in ten boys say they wish they had waited
until they were older to have sex.