Teens Pregnancy and Abortion (Essay Sample)

Teens Pregnancy and Abortion
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Introduction
Pregnancy and abortion amongst teenagers is a serious problem in the current societies. Teenage pregnancy is an aspect of sexual health which is a basic constituent of health. Thus, teenage pregnancy is considered an issue of greater importance to both the public and social health since it has a number of implications attached to it. The rate of pregnancy and abortion is extremely high among individuals who are below the age of twenty years. This bracket mostly involves students at colleges and a portion of high school students. Thus, teenage pregnancy refers to a condition among the female below the age of twenty years whereby they conceive before they become ready to have babies. On the other hand abortion means to terminate. Therefore, in this context, abortion refers to termination of pregnancy. It can either be planned or unplanned. A planned abortion is an induced one whereas unplanned abortion can be said to be a miscarriage (Meyers, 2004).
Pregnancy among teenagers is as a result of early and unprotected sex whereas abortion has a number of causes. It can be caused by the health condition of pregnant individual, social and economic factors. Whenever, an abortion is performed, there are various implications, mostly negative, towards the health of the pregnant woman hence it is believed to be a risky and dangerous act that would lead to death if not handled with lot of care.
Apart from affecting the individuals involved in abortion, abortion also affects the society at large. Teenagers who become pregnant while at school sometimes drop out of learning institutions because of shame thus increasing the rate of idlers which would in turn raise the level of uneducated people in the society. In addition, a percentage of pregnant teenagers who engage in abortion sometimes die and others develop health complications. This is quite costly for the families and the society as a whole.
Social problem
The rate of abortion increases day after day due to various reasons. Social issues are major causes of this unfortunate act among the teenagers. For instance, crime cases are frequent in the society and its rate tends to increase daily. A case of rape comes into picture whenever crime is related to pregnancy and abortion. A case of a college student being raped by a security guard at Kolej Tunku is a good example of societal crime. The victim was a young girl of eighteen years old. This incident affected the girl not only physically but psychologically. Just like any other rape victim, this young girl opted for an abortion since she was not prepared to bear a child she had not planned for (Abortion-reasons for abortion, 2007). As per this article, abortions that result from rape pregnancies are very hard to cure, mostly the psychological bit of pain caused by the event. This young college student took so many years to cure.
The second article is about incest which is a sexual relation between individuals who are related thus their marriage is believed to be forbidden or illegal in the society. Whenever such a couple gives birth or the woman conceives, the fetus is always found with deformities since their blood might be related. The incest article discusses the case of two teenagers who were in a relationship and the girl ended up pregnant. She opted for an abortion since maintaining the pregnancy would imply future complications and problems (Cate, 1980).
The last scenario of a teenage abortion is of a fourteen year old girl who was found unconscious in a room in the neighborhood. She performed an abortion without the consent of her parents thus causing harm to her body. When taken to hospital, the girl was found to have lost a lot of blood and some parts of her inner organs were damaged.
Evaluation of the social problem
Sexually active young individuals or rather teenagers are at a greater risk of being pregnant as compared to older teens. This is because the young teens are less likely to use contraceptives after having an unprotected sex. Majority of teenage pregnancies are unintended. About fifty percent of these accidental pregnancies end up in abortion. Teenagers may opt to abort their pregnancies because their greater concern is how the children would transform their lives. For instance, their worries are mostly towards finishing their education, financial matters, the feeling that they are not old enough or mature enough to become parents. To reduce the high rates of abortion in the society, the teenagers should take full responsibility of their pregnancies and carry them till they give birth (Teen abortions, 2003). Moreover, young women or teenagers consider themselves too young to take care of babies since they are inexperienced. Thus, they choose to terminate their pregnancies because they cannot foresee their babies’ later lives.
In some countries, abortion is authorized to some extent. For instance, in China the government has a policy meant to regulate the total population. Implementation of this policy has greatly contributed to a high rate of abortion in the country (Abortion in China, 2001). In most situations, pregnant women are always legalized to obtain a go ahead notice or rather an authorization to perform an abortion from the relevant authorities. Therefore, reports show that the teens in a number of urban areas engage in lawful abortions since the population authorities is fighting the increase in total population of the country (Abortion in China, 2001).
Besides, other nations support the act of abortion if it is performed to save a life or when the pregnancy was as a result of rape. For instance, the Brazilian nation established this law many years ago but it has become operational recently after the number of abortions was on the rising end. In the last five years, several hospitals in Brazil have been providing care to young women or rather the teenagers who got pregnant unwillingly and were not in a position to keep the babies. Reports show that the number has reached seventy of which forty out of the seventy girls performed legal abortion (Making legal abortion accessible in Brazil, 2002).
Lack of employment and school drop-out are potential causes for early pregnancies since young girls become hopeless due to then feeling of inadequacy. Thus, their future goals in life are shuttered and seem to be unattainable. Consequently, these teens perceive parenthood as the only approving factor to gaining an adulthood status in the society where the chances of employments are minimal. However, there was no sufficient evidence to support this (Declercq, 1982).
Conclusion
To sum up, teenage pregnancies are a greater threat to public health since it is linked with various health inequalities in the society. The rate of pregnancy and abortion amongst the teenagers is on the rising end due to increased rate of unprotected sex which is also unsafe. One out of ten teenagers who are sexually active are probable victims of pregnancy and abortion. This illustrate that they lack public awareness on sex education, use of condoms and contraception.
In order to handle the issue of teenage pregnancy and abortion it i...