Teenage Pregnancy: A Great Contributor To Overpopulation -By Nabeelat Badrudeen

Unwanted pregnancy is commonly found among teenagers, a teenager is a person who is between 13-19 years of age while pregnancy is the progression of stages from conception to birth. Unwanted or premarital pregnancy means when an adolescent or teenager got pregnant out of wedlock or by mistake. According to the Centers for Disease Control in 2017, around 194,000 babies were born to American girls between the ages of 15-19.

Teenage pregnancy looms as a result of these reasons; ignorance, curiosity, poverty, irresponsible adult behavior, lack of parental care, and peer influence to mention but a few.

Ignorance is not knowing what sex education is. The lack of sex education makes many teenagers vulnerable to pre-marital sex which led to teenage pregnancy; out of curiosity is when some teenagers despite being in full awareness of the consequential result of premarital sex, still practicalize it. In the course of their experiment, they got struck by pregnancy; poverty is also a fraction of the effect of teenage pregnancy, It is the quality or state of being poor or indigent. The high level of poverty in the country, especially in rural areas, pushes many teenagers into cities to engage in the sex trade. Since they lack education and skills, they end up trading their bodies for food or other material in which by having sex with multiple partners thereby risking teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

Teenage pregnancy has led many teenagers to drop out of school, which increases the dropout rate in the country. Some won’t be able to go further even after giving birth. Teenage mothers tend to abandon their children when they don’t have enough to cater for themselves, talkless of the child they gave birth to. Some leave their children on the street, and some might even kill innocent babies; this contributes to the growing number of children in orphanages and motherless babies homes.

Preventive measures are to teach teenagers how to be affirmative. For instance, no matter the attempt made by their peers and irresponsible men to engage them in premarital sex, they should be bold to say “NO”. Sex education should be included in the curriculum of each school so that teenagers will know what premarital sex is all about. Parents should not shy away from telling their children what premarital sex is all about, they should create a strong bond between them and their children so that they can be free to come to them at any time.

Abstinence is when a person decides not to have sex until they’re married. Some think of this as old-fashioned while others think it is morally the best thing to do. Whatsoever you think or choose, make sure you’re ready to bear the consequences of your action.

Conclusively, teenage pregnancy has become something of pride among teenagers and every responsible individual has a role to play starting from parents by telling their wards the implication of bringing a child into the world unprepared; Religious leaders: Pastors,and Imams should tell their followers the punishment in the Bible and Quran for those who engage in premarital sex and lastly, teenagers should make the best of the decision by abstaining from sex because when you know you’re not ready to bear parental responsibility, why in haste to taste the sweetness of sex (why engage)? May we not be an object of shame to our parents, friends, and society at large.