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- The national statistics support this conclusion. Twenty-five percent of teen
mothers conceive more than one child as teenagers. Sixty percent of women living on welfare conceived their first child as
a teenager. Most frightening of all, eighty-five percent of children living in poverty were born to teen mothers.
Source: Dosomething.org
11 Facts About Teen Pregnancy
- The U.S. has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the industrialized world – twice as
high as in England or Canada.
- 2006 saw the first rise in the U.S. teen pregnancy rate in 15 years.
- An estimated 750,000 teens will become pregnant this year.
- About 1 in 3 women become pregnant at least once before they're 20.
- A sexually active teen who does not use contraceptives has a 90% chance of becoming pregnant
within a year.
- It affects education - only a third of teen mothers earn their high school diploma. And only
1.5% have a college degree by age 30.
- It also affects their kids - girls born to teen mothers are more likely to be teen mothers
themselves. Boys born to teen moms are more likely to end up in prison.
- 75% of girls and over half of boys report that girls who have sex do so because their boyfriends
want them to.
- 8 in 10 girls and 6 in 10 boys say they wish they had waited until they were older to have
sex.
- Most teens (6 in 10) and adults (3 in 4) believe that teen boys often receive the message
that they are “expected to have sex.”
- Diapers are expensive, but it's nothing compared to the $9 billion that teen pregnancy costs
the United States each year. This includes increased spending in child welfare costs and public sector health care.
Fact:
According to Planned Parenthood, 1 in 4 teens is pregnant by the age
of 18. Socioeconomic disadvantages arise from this, because most mothers this age are not capable of supporting themselves,
much less a child. Quite a few teenage mothers end up living off food stamps, Medicaid, etc. Public funds cover the
cost of about ½ of teenage births in the United States.
Source:
Half a Million • There are nearly half a million children born to teenage mothers each year.
2 • The number of people it takes to cause a teenage pregnancy. You both have to be responsible.
$800 • The average amount of annual child support that absent fathers give to mothers who gave birth as teens.
*50% of adolescents who have a baby become pregnant again within two years of the baby’s birth.
8 in 10 • The number of teen fathers who do NOT marry the baby's mother. (Nearly 80% of fathers of children born to
teen DO NOT marry the mothers.)
4 in 10 • The number of teen mothers, under 18, who finish high school.
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91: the percentage of teens
who think it's important to get a strong message that they should wait to have sex.
76: the percentage of teens who wish the media showed
the consequences of sex more.
75: the percentage of teens who don't thinks
it's embarrassing to admit to being a virgin.
60: the percentage of teens who wish they'd waited
longer to have sex.
50: the percentage of teens who say they're still
virgins.
50: the percentage of Latina teens who get pregnant
at least once before turning 20
50: the percentage of guys who've never considered
what their lives would be like if they got a girl pregnant.
35: the percentage of teen couples who report having
initiated sex within the first month of their relationship
31: the percentage of male teens who did not
use a condom the first time they had sex
30 - 38: the percentage of teens who are not
consistent users of contraception
25: the percentage of people living with HIV in the
United States...who don't know that they're infected |
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Source: The National Campaign To Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy
Despite the recently declining teen pregnancy rates, 34% of teenage girls get pregnant at least once before they reach age
20, resulting in more than *820,000* teen pregnancies a year. At this level, the United States has the highest rate of teen
pregnancy in the fully industrialized world.
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