Teen Pregnancy

Times have changed, and pregnancy rates have changed with them. However, we have to look at what is meant by today's statistical teen pregnancy. Two hundred years ago, an unmarried girl of twenty-two would have been shocking.

Labeled a spinster, this woman would have lived out her days keeping house for her unmarried brothers and making money on the side by taking in laundry and sewing. The tables have turned, it seems. In today's society, a married girl under the age of twenty-four seems almost scandalous, and "spinsterhood" has become commonplace.

In the old days, marrying young was almost a requirement. The mortality rate was younger, so families had to get started earlier. Families also needed more children to help complete the tasks of the day. As industrialization inched west, the need for larger families diminished, as did the need for an early start. As a result, the average marriage age has slowly crept up.

Add to that the feminist movement and women's liberation, and you now see women with goals and ambitions other than houses with picket fences and the families to fill them. While children are still important to most, more and more women have begun to seek careers, putting their dreams of a husband and 2.5 children on hold.

At some point, though, the statistics began to change. Teen pregnancy statistics have rapidly risen over the past decade. While ignorance could be contributed to most of the "accidental teen pregnancies" of the past, we no longer have that problem. Required school health classes make it impossible for girls to plead ignorance. In fact, society almost embraces bad behavior.

Too often children are left on their own for too much of the day. Girls are allowed to dress like common prostitutes and boys are trained to treat them as such. They are free to stay out all hours of the night. It is amazing, to me, that the statistics aren't higher. However, there have been major strides made to help curb this trend.

The Prom Promise first came on the scene asking boys and girls to remain abstinent on prom night. Since then other abstinence campaigns have evolved, and virginity is again becoming an IT thing. While parents should take more responsibility when it comes to where, for how long, and with who a child spends his or her time, teens themselves seemingly have the most at stake.

I believe that in this point in their lives, it is their peers that will have the most impact. Therefore, we must do more to change society's opinion of sex. "Role models" like Paris Hilton and Britney Spears do nothing to promote women's images of self.