TEENAGE PREGNANCY

The other day I overheard frank sharing of views between my neighbors regarding teenage pregnancy. I was curious and my further reading tells me that it is one of the most alarming issues faced by many families around the world today. In fact, it has become a frightening trend where many teenagers are so naively fallen into. It is so much so that if you happen to step foot into a local high school, you can hear stories of pregnant teenage student. What exactly is Teenage Pregnancy.? Well, Teenage Pregnancy is defined as a teenage or underage girl (usually within the ages of 1319) becoming pregnant. The term in everyday speech usually refers to women who have not reached legal adulthood, which varies across the world, who become pregnant. You may ask, what is happening to our Teenagers nowadays. I would propose that teenage pregnancy occurs due to the following reasons: consequences of raging hormones, rebelling against the set norms and rules, peer group pressure, media influences, dont know how to say no, low self esteem and the crave for unconditional love and attention from people surrounding them. Many parents are not prepared or informed about the effect of the change of hormones on their emotional sexual responses. As a result, many teenagers are left struggling to understand their emotional turmoil especially in the areas of their emotional sexual development. . The consequences of raging hormones results in many sad stories of teenage pregnancy. According to an online article entitled What Causes Teenage Pregnancies, in this stage of their growth, it was explained that there is a huge influx of hormones that cause emotions to rage and change among teenagers. It is also at this stage of teens growth that they are vulnerable to experience a natural sense of rebelling against the set norms and rules. Instead of engaging in healthy social activities, they resort to experiment sex.

Due to peer pressure, many teenagers even succumb to sex in exchange for acceptance by their so called Circle of Friends. In some developed countries, teenagers face too much peer pressure to start having sex at a very young adolescent age. This kind of promiscuous behavior often leads to unwanted teenage pregnancies. In fact, many teens are engaged in sexual intercourse with their partners just to be in with their friends. The impact of Media on Teenage Pregnancy is another huge topic. Nowadays, unhealthy sexual scenes that propagate teenage sex and pregnancy are abundant on televisions, magazines, electronic medias and social network sites. It is sad and depressing to see that may young teenagers are blindly led by the media to believe that they can live a more glamorous life if they are involve in teenage sex especially in the western world. Unfortunately, they do not realize the taboo, shames and hurts that Teenage Pregnancy brings about to them, their families and friends. This is more so in Asian context where by pregnancy before adulthood is critically looked down with shame. With the increase in sex commercialization in the Media, many young girls felt pressured to take part in premarital sex and werent sure how to say NO. However, I believe there are ways to abstain from sex thus prevent unwanted pregnancy. One of the ways is sexual abstinence. Sexual abstinence is the practice of voluntarily refraining from all aspects of sexual activity. Many people today practice sexual abstinence. It may be because of material reasons such as preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease. Other reasons include psycho-sociological reasons. Why involve in Teenage Pregnancy when we, as teenagers have yet to experience the living in real world. Look around us, there are many popular celebrities practicing sexual abstinence as well. Jordin Sparks, Miley Cyrus, The Jonas Brothers are some of the folks from Hollywood admitting to having purity rings. Why not emulate them instead! Other than that, teenagers need to be aware of what to say to their partners in refusing teenage sex. Use a firm voice to say NO and keep saying no to get your point across. Have a discussion about your reasons for abstinence. Engage your boyfriend/girlfriend in a good give- and-take talk about your ideas concerning the timing for sexual relation. Seek his input, but explain where you stand, so there will be no misunderstanding later. When you are in a relationship, you should not get yourself into a physical situation that

makes you feel uncomfortable. Remember that only you have the rights to own your body. We have looked at some seemingly good reasons for Teenage Pregnancy. However, on deeper thoughts, these justifications are just sheer lies and deceptions by the devils. Ask any sensible adults and parents, we can hear many horror stories related to teenage pregnancy. Problems of single parents, problematic kids even teenage suicides just to name some. The negative consequences far out-weigh the urge to give in to uncontrolled self sexual gratifications. Believe me, make a smart choice by saying NO, it is worth Staying Pure lest one regret! In conclusion, Teenage Pregnancy is a big social problem that needs urgent attention. I believe, it should involve proper and healthy sex education at all levels, i.e from family to schools and institutions. Make a smart choice , Stay Pure !