One of my favorite things to watch on television is talk show paternity test results. For years, The gossip and intrigue has kept me tuning into shows like Maury, Ricki Lake, and Jerry Springer. The one thing that has significantly changed about those shows are the ages of the unsure mothers. Girls as young as thirteen are calling into talk show networks questioning the paternity of their infants. When did adolescent pregnancy become so acceptable that talk show hosts are able to make millions of dollars by emceing hour long segments called “I’m Thirteen: Who’s my Baby’s Daddy?” Teenage pregnancy is not a satisfactory achievement and should be more widely viewed as a growing dilemma in the United States.
Times have changed, and things that were not acceptable during our parent’s youth are becoming more of a part of our daily lives. I would always give my mother slack during sex talks for getting pregnant with my oldest sister at the age of fifteen. She admitted that she wished that she would have done a little more growing up before beginning a family of her own, yet she always explained the fact that she was married to my sister’s father. “Indeed there were
There are many reasons that a young girl may become pregnant. She may feel that the baby will give her the attention and love of which she feels deprived. She may use a pregnancy as an anchor for the child’s father. With the simple access to alcohol and drugs, many girls have sex under the influence and may make unwise decisions. More than often, though, the pregnancy is not intentional, and the girl may end up regretting the pregnancy.
• About 1 million teenagers become pregnant each year; 95% of those pregnancies are
So, how serious is the problem of teenage pregnancy in America? Here are a few facts from the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
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