Teen pregnancy: it's worse than you think

A new survey has found almost a third of sexually active girls aged 15-19 have gotten pregnant. 

That number really shocked me, although my shock is surely exacerbated by my upper-middle class upbringing.  Sure, I have friends who've gotten pregnant, but not many.

I recently heard the story of a girl and her boyfriend who had been having unprotected sex for over two years and she just now got pregnant.  She's 20.  The idiocy it takes to continue to take the risk of pregnancy for over 104 weeks is unthinkable.  But apparently not unheard of!

Although straight stupidity is sometimes to blame for unintended pregnancy, among teenage girls it is not the chief culprit.   Rather inadequate sex education, which often creates the impression that all birth control is faulty.  This kind of information not only prevents teens from learning the correct ways to prevent pregnancy, but it might also make them think that nothing is truly reliable and therefore worth taking the time to purchase. 

But only 11% of boys in the same age group report being involved in a pregnancy -- which alludes to the fact that most of these girls aren't telling their partners.  If more guys knew they'd gotten someone pregnant, or that their friend had, they'd be more likely to use birth control.

Comments

[joe blow]

come on kate, every teen knows what birth control is. They get hammered on it constantly. Even Jay Leno's "jaywalking" segment would find that teh vast majority of teenagers DO know how various forms of birth control can prevent pregnancy.

In the heat of passion, nobody thinks about birth control. Whats the big deal? Just get an abortion and be done with it. NO harm, no foul.

[joe blow]

On another note, lets get real about human sexuality for a minute.

Teenage boys WILL NEVER MAKE SMART DECISIONS ABOUT BIRTH CONTROL, PERIOD. Their minds are so warped by sexual attraction, combined by the added effect of not being able to get pregnant, that in the heat of the moment they wont be reliable.

HOWEVER, for teenage girls is a different story. Teenage girls by and large dont have sex because they are caught up in passion. They have sex because they want to "please their boyfriend" or they just go along with it. Very very few teenage girls have sex for the sheer thrill of it. For most girls its rather painful the first time anyways.

Given that fundamental biological difference between males and females, its MUCH EASIER for girls to think/plan birth control than it is for males. That doenst mean that the burden is soley on the females. That just means that birth control will work MUCH BETTER if girls are the gatekeepers to sex like they should be. Have the girls force the man to wear a condom, or deny them sex. After all, girls arent drawn by the same intense biological urge for sex like boys are. They can easily walk away. For a teenage boy to walk away from sex is an achievement the size of Mount Everest.

[joe blow]

OK to continue my diatribe, let me just say that since the sexual revolution of hte 1960s, women have largely given up their role as "sex gatekeepers"

Men are just as sexually aggressive in the 2000s as they were back in the 1880s. The difference between now and then is that women freely give up sex, whereas before they were masters of chastity by and large.

[Kate]

Man, too bad Joe Blow will be totally shattered when he can't leave his nonsense anymore on my soon to be defunct blog.

[Broce]

Joe, teenage girls often have no pain or bleeding on first intercourse - things like athletic activity, dance, etc. mean the hymen is long gone by adolescence. I had no pain and no bleeding.

And if you think that teenage girls only have sex to please someone else and not because they feel passion - well, perhaps that has more to do with your own inability to have inspired that passion in them. I certainly didn't have a lack of passion, nor did the other young women in my circle when I was a teenager. Those of us who were sexually active were so because we *wanted* to be. We actually liked sex with our boyfriends.

It's just as hard for a teenage girl to walk away from sex as it is a boy. You've characterized women here as sexless, trading sex for love (which of course is no different than trading it for anything else, which means you're essentially stating that teenage girls who are sexually active are all prostitutes). And you've characterized teen boys as sexual predators, all of them.

My 18 year old son is sexually active, and uses a condom each and every time, even though his girlfriend is on the pill, because he wants to make damned sure she does not get pregnant.

And your statement that if girls are the sexual gatekeepers "as they should be"...um...according to whom, Joe, other than you? Who says girls have to be sexual gatekeepers? Are women so passionless, in your experience? Are all men mindless sex machines, completely unable to use self discipline to control themselves?

It seems you have absolutely no respect for girls *or* boys.

[beowulf]

Why are there more teenage mothers than teenage fathers? The answer is obvious...

"In 1991, the most recent year for which figures are available, the National Center for Health Statistics reports that
almost 70 percent of births to teenage girls were fathered by men 20 and older (National Center for Health Statistics
1993)."

[joe blow]

Of course sexual desire/passion is present in women, but its NOWHERE NEAR THE SAME LEVEL AS MEN.

Consider the following experiment:

Take a random group of 100 men and 100 women. Tell them they cant engage in any sexual activity for 1 year.

Results?

The women, although they miss sex, are not really that bothered by it. They think about it occassionally, but overall they would still rate their quality of life as "good." Women value relationships, friendships that to some degree will compensate a lack of sex in their lives. If you guaranteed the women a supply of close friends and acquantances in exchange for sex, they would accept that. Men wont.

Men on the other hand, would report their experience as being far worse than the women. Thoughts of sex would be a constant occurrence. They would be MUCH less likely to relate their quality of life as "good."

All I'm saying is that there are in fact biological differences between males and females regarding sex. Its not excusing bad behavior. Rapists/sexual predators should be punished to the full extent of hte law, regardless of biology.

[Quix0te]

First, thats certainly an interesting experiment Joe. Who performed it? What were the age groups involved? How was the information reported? All are important factors in gauging the results. Or did you make it up?

Second, I'm not terribly surprised that the boys aren't 'kept in the loop'. Even in their teen years, many girls understand that the fellows they have for sexual partners aren't necessarily the guys they want for their life partners. I suspect many of them are concerned (and rightly so) that the young man would want to have a voice in how the pregnancy was resolved. And thats one more argument than most pregnant women want to have.

[fdf]

Boys will be boys :-)

[daisy]

how many girls have gotten pregnant under 18 and the boyfriend leaves u! well i want to know y guys leave the girl after she's pregnant

[midget]

the guys usually leave the girl after she's pregnant because he just wants the sex.

[Cara Fletcher]

I think it will be a good idea if there are sexual education classes because students should know more about HIVP and cervical cancer which are one of the widely discussed diseases these days.

[Jennifer]

This is unbelieveable I am pregnant and 16 married and in college. You all have crazy theories as to why teens get pregnant. Well I can tell you one thing....teenagers are horny...they have sex, but just because they have sex they arent tramps or floozies. I lost my virginity to my husband before we were married and hes the only one ive been with in my life, so am I a skank for getting pregnant or are the girls having sex with different men every night that are my ages but just havent gotten pregnant yet the skanks? I dont think its either, and I idont think abortion is an option, youre old enough and mature enough to have sex, deal with getting pregnant for it is the true purpose of intercourse.

[Pregnancy]

I agree with cara, thats is all guys want and the commitment of a baby is just too much for them

[Nicole]

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[Eric]

This stuff about how girls just have sex to
please the boys is feminist garbage. It is this whole anti male attitude that has become so prevalent since the 1960's. It takes two to tango and believe me the girls are wanting to tango!!! Girls like one night stand and sex just like the boys. Stop making excuses for the girls like they are all so innocent and are somehow victims of horny boys. Girls experience lust and physical attraction just like boys do. Take your feminist hogwash and flush it!!
People who just blame the boys are probabaly the same ones that say "all men are pigs." I've got news: "People are pigs"
We are part of the animal kingdom and girls are just as horny as boys and it is normal.
This country needs a dose of machismo and we need to drop this blame boys and men for everything and hold girls and women accountable to and stop giving them a free pass. We have been "sissified" and "oprahfied" Lets get tough like we used to be and get back to personal responsibility applied equally.

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