Adolescent pregnancy has long been a societal concern, but in the past decade, this issue has become one of the most frequently cited examples of the perceived societal decay in the United States. About 560,000 teenage girls give birth each year. Eight in ten of these births resulted from unintended pregnancies. (McCuen 16). Sorting out cause and effect would be easy if pregnant teens all lived in the same area with the same disadvantages or if these women chose to become mothers early in life. But such mothers are not randomly dotted across the social landscape. Increased rates of sexual activity, illegitimacy, and welfare receipt raise public concerns. Although the onset of pregnancy may occur in any teenager, some teens are at higher risk for unplanned pregnancy than others. Despite the recent decline in the teen birth rates, teen pregnancy remains a significant problem facing our nation. Social problems, a vast amount of emotional and psychological problems often contribute to teen pregnancy.
Promiscuous is defined as careless, casual, or even aimless. Teens are being promiscuous more than ever before. Teenagers are participating in the new world of sexual freedom. Social behavior is no longer restricted to the higher class. Today, teens become sexually active not when they move out of the parental home and into a family of their own, but while they are still considered as children. Young women are just as likely as young men today to be sexually active before marriage. With more and more teens having casual sex, the risks of pregnancy goes up. They do not weigh their options and take into consideration the consequences of their behavior that could possibly change their entire life. They do not realize that it could happen to them. They only see it as something that happens to other people. They feel they are invincible.
We should recognize that sexual behavior is a matter of character and personality, and that we cannot be value-neutral about it.
