Teen Births Rise Again: Are Babies Always a Blessing?

For the second year in a row, after over a decade of decline, teen births are on the rise. There is no doubt that America has a troubling relationship with sex, especially teen sexuality in particular. Last year we were shocked to discover that teen births rose in 2006. However, after today's release of the 2007 data, it is clear that the 2006 statistics were not an aberration. Teen pregnancy (whether we choose to admit it or not) is still a major problem in this country.

As a teenager, the thought of my becoming pregnant was traumatizing. Today, as a woman who is thirty-six weeks pregnant with her second (planned) baby, the thought (and reality) of pregnancy is still very much anxiety-provoking. Parenthood is far from easy no matter what your age or relationship status. That being said, there is no way that I could have possibly experienced pregnancy as an adolescent. I have a hard enough time now, as an adult.

4.3 million new babies were born in 2007. This number is the largest in United States history. Babies are everywhere. And it seems more than ever that having them is trendy, easy, and chic. Look at Jamie-Lynn Spears, Juno, Bristol Palin, and the alleged "pact" of pregnant girls in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Whether we like it or not, pregnant teens are in the spotlight. They get notoriety, immediate tabloid attention, and money for selling their stories to the highest bidder. If we indeed live in a world consumed by narcissism and the desperate need for infamy, teen pregnancy has been a fairly quick way of achieving those frightful goals.

According to the latest data from the National Center for Health Statistics/Centers for Disease Control and Prevent, the birth rate for teenagers between the ages of 15-17 rose by 1% in 2007; 22.2 births per 1,000 girls. 40% of 2007 births were to unwed mothers, 25% of those women were younger than twenty years old.

When Bristol Palin announced her pregnancy and pending marriage to Levi Johnson, I appeared on a morning news show to discuss the challenges of teen marriage and early parenthood. My co-panelists were teen parents who were choosing to marry (even at the tender age of sixteen). Their idea of marriage was all fantasy -- cotton candy ideals of romance, financial assistance from parents, and monogamy. Sadly, this is rarely the case. And just look at Bristol, she and Levi didn't even make it to the wedding.

Needless to say, relationships are far from easy. And adolescence is a time of exploration -- not for making any type of impossible-to-keep commitment. Sure, babies can be a blessing. But a true blessing is in having the ability to make informed decisions, the freedom to speak up for your needs, having access to reproductive health services and information, and having accurate and effective sexuality education. Those are the kind of blessings I will instill in my children.

Comments

[SarcasticFringehead]

I can't help but wonder if this rise in teen pregnancy isn't linked to the eight years of government promoted "Abstinence Only" instruction. If you don't have knowledge about birth control, I would imagine your odds of getting pregnant are increased pretty substantially.

[Shirley Fisk]

3/24/09
6:17pm
Indianapolis Central Library

Your examples of teen moms are celebrities and upper or middle class teens but I wonder how the increase in teen pregnancies breaks down in terms of family income. I'll bet that the increase is in poorer families.
Turns out that if you are a female teen who has not been studying and planning for college you are not going to be able to get much of a job, either. But you can get your own place and income if you become pregnant--TANFF.
Lets give the girls some other options or help them stay on track in school and apply for college.

[Ankhorite]

You instill values, you give blessings - where was your editor when you needed them? Tch!

But quibbling aside, I hope you get more opportunities in the internet press, print, and television to say this over and over and over: early birth is not a blessing. It deprives the teen mom's siblings of their fair share of their parents' support. It deprives the teen parents of . . . basically, it deprives them of the chance to be teens, and then of the chance to get an education, and then the opportunity to support their children in ways they don't have to be ashamed of, without cadging from parents and grandparents to put food into the little mouth they recklessly brought to life.

Teen parenting is a misery for all concerned, and cruelly unfair to the infant, who will never have the advantages a stable, mature, and solvent set of parents can provide.

[FearlessFreep]

The fact is that there are fewer teenage mothers today than in the '50s. The difference is, most of them were married back then. (What's changed is the decline in shotgun weddings.)

[letstakeawalk]

We're going to need a new "baby boom" to provide enough workers to pay the taxes that will come as we have to pay back all the borrowing the US is doing right now...

[LeftRight]

Your headline is slightly wrong. Rather than asking the question, you should be making a statement that babies are not always a blessing. Many times, perhaps even most times, but NOT always!!