What to Do About Pregnant Teens

Many high schools and junior high schools across America are inflicted with a social dilemma: pregnancies. Even though pregnancy is a beautiful thing, junior high school kids as well as high school teenagers clearly do not have the means to take care of their own children all on their own without any help whatsoever. Is this a problem, however? Many people suggest that the rate of sex among high school teenagers and even junior high pre-teens is, indeed, out of control. What can be done about it, then? Does there need to be better sex education programs throughout the country? What about teaching abstinence as the key to preventing pregnancies? On the other hand, there are those that simply give kids condoms, which lets them know it's perfectly alright to go ahead and have sex anyway.

While there are those who feel that teenagers are having sex at an earlier age and at an alarming rate, Human and Health Services of the United States suggests the opposite. They have been tracking the rate of sex and sexual activity throughout the United States among teenagers, and they have found that the rate of pregnancies has dropped dramatically ever since the mid-1990s. However, this may be due to the fact that there are been more teenagers that have sex that do use a form of contraception, like condoms or birth control.

What about Sex Education?

Sex education still does serve a good purpose in the United States, however. There are a couple forms of sex-education and many of them are intertwined with each other anyway. First, though, teenagers can be taught to use abstinence as a sure-fire way not to get pregnant; however, there are more comprehensive and alternative sex education programs throughout the country that utilize and endorse the use of condoms, birth control, and other forms of contraception during sex and sexual activity of teenagers. However, it is important to note that approximately 80% of Americans, according to Health and Human Services, favor the use of abstinence when teaching our children and teenagers about sex and educating them about the many consequences of having sex at an early age.

Is there any true solution?

It is absolutely 100% true, though, that abstinence is the only fool-proof method and way not to get pregnant. Birth control even fails at times when teenagers decide to have sex, and condoms certainly are not a sure-fire way not to get pregnant when it comes to sex.

Also, teaching abstinence before marriage in a sex education program doesn't necessarily endorse any religious theme or motivation, either, as many people tend to think that it would. Not only would a decrease in the amount of sex between teenagers reduce the risk of the many sexually transmitted diseases within the United States, but it would also save their virginity for marriage, which has been shown to mean a great deal to marriage partners.

When it comes to sex, junior high preteens and high school teenagers may be completely clueless. Even though it may feel good in the moment and be what they want right then, they may just regret having sex later on down the road. The sex education within schools that teach abstinence and other sexual educational methods are a great idea, but one of the more influential figures in a teenager's life is their parents and guardians. They have just as much, if not more, influence on teenagers around the country when it comes to the issue of having sex rather than leaving that issue completely up to the sex education program within their junior high or high school.