Teenage pregnancy is 100% preventable and being abstinent guarantees that you will not become pregnant. The smartest way to prevent pregnancy is to not become sexually active until you are married, this is called abstinence. Not all teenagers are able to follow abstinence due to peer pressure or their friends encouraging having sex. Teens need encouragement not only from their family but also their friends, to wait to engage in sex and have children at the appropriate age. There is no evidence to support that abstinence effectively prevents teenage pregnancies or decreases the number of pregnancies. Refraining from sexual activity and abstinence is the best and safest way to avoid teen pregnancy.
Unfortunately getting the encouragement to abstain from sex is rare these days slightly due to television shows such as 16 and Pregnant, Teen Mom, and The Pregnancy Pact. These reality series show young girls that getting pregnant is okay and if they could do it, so could viewers. It condones premarital sex and portrays that it is okay to get pregnant. The media glamorizes the issue of being a teenager but also becoming a mother. Although the shows intentional idea was to portray the struggles of young teen mothers, it has backfired. All it portrays now is the idea that teens can get pregnant, have babies, and if you let a camera crew in your house to film it all happening, you could make money.
Most teens get pregnant because they are not fully aware of all the different contraceptives that are available and do not know how to stay safe. Teenagers who become sexually active at a young age are more likely to become teenage parents because they are less knowledgeable about contraceptives and are usually not on birth control. The benefits of contraceptives are quite dramatic and helpful. Not only do they help prevent reduce the number of unintended pregnancies, they also reduce the amount of abortions, reduce the incidence of death or illness during childbirth, and they can help prevent the transmission of sexual transmitted diseases. The most common forms of contraceptives are to use a condom, go on the birth control pill, or get on the birth control shot. Misunderstanding and false assumptions regarding pregnancy and contraception can lead to an unwanted pregnancy. For instance, majority of US teenage females believe that if they lose their virginity and do not use a condom they cannot become pregnant.
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