Teenage Pregnancy....A Mom Before the Prom

[Fred1369]

This is from The Huffington Post which we all know is kinda liberal. But this article is not about R & P so I didn't post it there. It concerns all of us no matter what your R & P is.

The Huffington PostOctober 11, 2008

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cristi..._b_133478.html

Now that the national attention on Bristol Palin's pregnancy is fading (for the time being) it seems the only discussion it inspired was about John McCain's vetting process and, by extension, his decision-making abilities. But there is another far more important subject raised by the 17-year-old's pregnancy. For decades, teen pregnancy has been viewed as a problem, a danger to the children of young mothers and a hurdle to the success of the adolescent mothers.

But recent public displays of contraceptive failure by girls of visibility and means gives the misleading appearance that teen motherhood might be a lifestyle upgrade. Clearly one of the exacerbating factors is that someone like Bristol Palin is part of what feels like a growing trend: the normalizing of teen pregnancy and teen motherhood in the United States. Bristol is not alone in suggesting that to be a 17-year-old mother is not only acceptable, but exciting. Last year Jamie Lynn Spears, Britney's then 16-year-old sister, had her baby. (The Spears', it's worth noting, were proponents of abstinence-only too.) Last year also featured the movie Juno, in which star Ellen Page played a 16-year-old whose quick-wit and sarcasm made her unwanted pregnancy seem as challenging as a bad case of acne. The attention garnered by each of these girls stripped away layers of what had for years been cautions against this very fate.

None of these occasions has prompted examination of the risks and damage caused by teen pregnancy and teen motherhood. And, it should be noted, recent data show that the rate of teen pregnancy in the U.S., which is already the highest in the developed world, is on the rise. The last year witnessed a dramatic 3 percent spike in the number of pubescent parents.

Of course, Bristol, Juno and Jamie Lynn don't exemplify the average American girl confronting unintended pregnancy. And the problem is the average American teen doesn't really know that. Take it from school officials in Gloucester, Massachusetts who witnessed a four fold increase in teen pregnancies last year. The principal even suspected the spike was a coordinated effort charging that the 18 girls planned a "pact" to all get pregnant. It's clear that girls today are getting a glamorized message about teen pregnancy. The choice the fictional character Juno made, adoption, is almost a fiction these days too. Approximately 1 percent of pregnant teens opt to give a child up for adoption. And then Jamie Lynn Spears is a teen millionaire. Her pregnancy only enhanced her fortune. The first photos of her baby fetched a million dollars. The spotlight on Bristol Palin offers false comfort too. Bristol has resources available to her that none of her pregnant teen counterparts does -- like the secret service, the ultimate nanny.

The average teen girl would be led to believe that teen pregnancy doesn't ruin adolescence, but instead brings lavish amounts of attention, an adoring and adorable teen father, and an endless supply of parental support. The reality for most teen moms could not be more different. According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, eight in 10 teen fathers do not marry the mother of their first child. Kids without involved fathers are twice as likely to drop out of school, twice as likely to abuse alcohol or drugs, twice as likely to end up in jail, and two to three times more likely to need help for emotional or behavioral problems. Children who live apart from their fathers are also five times more likely to be poor than children with both parents at home.

Teen mothers, typically left to go it alone, are less likely to complete the education necessary to qualify for a well-paying job -- in fact, parenthood is the leading cause of school drop out among teen girls. College then becomes the remotest of possibilities. Less than two percent of mothers who have children before age 18 complete college by the age of 30.

Too often heartbreaking sacrifices are also foisted on the child of a teenage mom. The children of teen mothers are more likely to be born prematurely at low birthweight compared to children of older mothers, which raises the probability of infant death and disease, mental retardation, and mental illness. Children of teen mothers are 50 percent more likely to repeat a grade and are less likely to complete high school. The children of teen parents also suffer higher rates of abuse and neglect (two times higher).

Teen girls and their children are not the only ones paying dearly. Teen childbearing in the United States costs taxpayers (federal, state, and local) approximately $9.1 billion each year. Most of the costs are associated with services to address the negative consequences detailed above.

Teen pregnancy needs to be discussed honestly whenever the next Juno, Jamie Lynn or Bristol takes her baby bump primetime. Otherwise, "pregnancy pact" is a term we can all start getting used to.

[DJW]

I'm sure Ariana would be happy to pony up some cash for these teen girls to commit infanticide.

She is a real philanthropist you know.






Buckle up...we're on our way to the R&P, Fred.

[route66paul]

There is a big difference from promoting abortion and promoting anti-conception birth control.

[Waffen]

Celebration of sluts...


W

[route66paul]

These girls just got caught. Jamie Spears was a little young to start the wham bam, but it is there all over. 100 years ago, girls that age had their hope chests all ready and many were married at 15 or 16, some at 13.

Many of you are in denial about your baby having sex, can you remember? I can, and I would kill a boy that did some of the stuff that I did. Parents who don't teach thier children about birth control soon become grandparents.

[Waffen]

Originally Posted by route66paul

These girls just got caught. Jamie Spears was a little young to start the wham bam, but it is there all over. 100 years ago, girls that age had their hope chests all ready and many were married at 15 or 16, some at 13.

Many of you are in denial about you baby having sex, can you remember? I can, and I would kill a boy that did some of the stuff that I did. Parents who don't teach there children about birth control soon become grandparents.

Lack of parental supervision and the easy way out (read:abortion) make it too easy for the girls to get out of trouble. Maybe if the parents of both the boy and girl were responsible to care for the baby, teens might just keep their peckers in their pants and their legs crossed. When there is little consequense to ill advised actions and the parents aren't impacted, why not? And instead of celebrating this type of activity maybe we should publically shun this type of immoral behavior.

W

[newultraclassic]

Originally Posted by Waffen

Lack of parental supervision and the easy way out (read:abortion) make it too easy for the girls to get out of trouble. Maybe if the parents of both the boy and girl were responsible to care for the baby, teens might just keep their peckers in their pants and their legs crossed. When there is little consequense to ill advised actions and the parents aren't impacted, why not? And instead of celebrating this type of activity maybe we should publically shun this type of immoral behavior.

W

Good idea. I certainly agree.

As to "areola"Huffington, she is a witch. If she says something, you should do the opposite. She's more liberal than the muslim candidate for president. Hussein Obama.

A liberal is someone who wants to spend your money on their own pet programs. Being a liberal is a form of mental disease or disorder. It's incurable.

[route66paul]

Originally Posted by Waffen

Lack of parental supervision and the easy way out (read:abortion) make it too easy for the girls to get out of trouble. Maybe if the parents of both the boy and girl were responsible to care for the baby, teens might just keep their peckers in their pants and their legs crossed. Oh yeah, all of us had enough respect for our parents so that we wouldn't do that!When there is little consequense to ill advised actions and the parents aren't impacted, why not? And instead of celebrating this type of activity maybe we should publically shun this type of immoral behavior.Unwed mothers have been shunned in the past and the child sufferred and if female was often the victim of peer rape, like mother, like daughter. Who do you think waited on tables at all of the coffee shops and dinner houses? Do you want to go back to that? Do you think that a kid without a father is somehow "wrong"? Why should they suffer because of a momentary lapse in judgement, or even a date rape? Many of the unwed mothers of the 50s and 60s were victims of date rape and either were too embarrassed to say anything or were not believed. I have known many girls who were victims of date rape, it was very common, even at the drive-in, football games, and parent sponsered parties. it happens.

W

It is pretty hard to expect someone who has reached sexual maturity to stay virgin for 10 years. this is not going to happen. We can put saltpeter in their food, or just face facts - we have been ordered to "Go forth and multiply", this is something that is with us and will always win out sooner or later. How many of you were virgins at 16? 17? 18? 19? I call BS on most of you. Those of us that were not parents in our teens were lucky or smart enough to use birth control. That kind of talk reminds me of the crap I heard from my parents(my grandparents were smart enough not to say that stuff. Many of the people born ain the 19th and early 20th century were married by 15).

[HiAngle]

I heard something about the future father dropping out of school. Please tell me he's not dropping out of high school.

[Fred1369]

to get a job to support his new family?

[Waffen]

Originally Posted by Waffen
Lack of parental supervision and the easy way out (read:abortion) make it too easy for the girls to get out of trouble. Maybe if the parents of both the boy and girl were responsible to care for the baby, teens might just keep their peckers in their pants and their legs crossed. Oh yeah, all of us had enough respect for our parents so that we wouldn't do that!When there is little consequense to ill advised actions and the parents aren't impacted, why not? And instead of celebrating this type of activity maybe we should publically shun this type of immoral behavior.

Unwed mothers have been shunned in the past and the child sufferred and if female was often the victim of peer rape, like mother, like daughter. Who do you think waited on tables at all of the coffee shops and dinner houses? Do you want to go back to that? Do you think that a kid without a father is somehow "wrong"? Why should they suffer because of a momentary lapse in judgement, or even a date rape? Many of the unwed mothers of the 50s and 60s were victims of date rape and either were too embarrassed to say anything or were not believed. I have known many girls who were victims of date rape, it was very common, even at the drive-in, football games, and parent sponsered parties. it happens.


I would then suggest as a parent you pay more attention to the places the girl goes to and who she hangs out with..

And don't throw in date rape that is not the premise of the article and not the vast majority of unwed/unplanned babies. That's just an excuse. If the boy and girl knowingly engage in activities that could produce a baby shame on them and shame on their parents.

If a girl is raped the sob rapist should be locked up for as long as the kid is alive.


W

Originally Posted by route66paul

It is pretty hard to expect someone who has reached sexual maturity to stay virgin for 10 years.

Why? Personal responsibility and morality to difficult for them?

this is not going to happen. We can put saltpeter in their food, or just face facts - we have been ordered to "Go forth and multiply", this is something that is with us and will always win out sooner or later. How many of you were virgins at 16? 17? 18? 19? I call BS on most of you. Those of us that were not parents in our teens were lucky or smart enough to use birth control.

Don't know about you or your family but we were taught self control, birth control was only one of the outcomes of solid Catholic teachings.

That kind of talk reminds me of the crap I heard from my parents(my grandparents were smart enough not to say that stuff. Many of the people born ain the 19th and early 20th century were married by 15).

So because it happened 100+ years ago that makes it ok..

To bad you've given up on morals.

W

[DJW]

Originally Posted by Fred1369

to get a job to support his new family?

He took a job on the North Slope. He will have to finish school in the evening (GED) like a lot of other people. He did the deed, owned up to it, and still wants to marry her, and is willing to strap on the hard hat to make it happen. He hasn't chosen an easy path, but it's one that used to be the path of a lot of people back in the day..

"....then I got Mary Pregnant,
and man that was all she wrote.
For my 19th birthday,
I got a union card and a wedding coat..."-Bruce Springsteen

[geoffreyt]

Ariana wasn't the aborted one. I'm sure she approves of abortions.

[route66paul]

Originally Posted by Waffen

Originally Posted by Waffen
Lack of parental supervision and the easy way out (read:abortion) make it too easy for the girls to get out of trouble. Maybe if the parents of both the boy and girl were responsible to care for the baby, teens might just keep their peckers in their pants and their legs crossed. Oh yeah, all of us had enough respect for our parents so that we wouldn't do that!When there is little consequense to ill advised actions and the parents aren't impacted, why not? And instead of celebrating this type of activity maybe we should publically shun this type of immoral behavior.

Unwed mothers have been shunned in the past and the child sufferred and if female was often the victim of peer rape, like mother, like daughter. Who do you think waited on tables at all of the coffee shops and dinner houses? Do you want to go back to that? Do you think that a kid without a father is somehow "wrong"? Why should they suffer because of a momentary lapse in judgement, or even a date rape? Many of the unwed mothers of the 50s and 60s were victims of date rape and either were too embarrassed to say anything or were not believed. I have known many girls who were victims of date rape, it was very common, even at the drive-in, football games, and parent sponsered parties. it happens.


I would then suggest as a parent you pay more attention to the places the girl goes to and who she hangs out with..

And don't throw in date rape that is not the premise of the article and not the vast majority of unwed/unplanned babies. That's just an excuse. If the boy and girl knowingly engage in activities that could produce a baby shame on them and shame on their parents.

If a girl is raped the sob rapist should be locked up for as long as the kid is alive.


W





To bad you've given up on morals.

W

Morals last a while. but all people discovery sex sooner or later. it is better that it is after marriage, but if we aren't going back to arranged marriages and hook up the kids at 15, after keeping them apart all of their lives, many will discovery sex before marriage. I have heard people claim that they were virgins at marriage, but it is not common.

We have an imperative to have sex. It is going to happen, this is why the human race is on this planet. Willpower lasts only so long. Those of you that were virgins at marriage can stand up and cast to first stone.