While teenage pregnancy accounts enable girls to be aware that somebody out there is listening attentively to their problems, they also reveal to the concerned girls and other people that statistics given in reports addressing the "teenage pregnancy problem" certainly are not mere numbers but are representative of humans with feelings.
Abortion statistics are especially misleading in their chilling numbers. It is extremely simple to reel off percentages when you are not actually in front of the concerned individuals. However, the accounts of teenage pregnancies make it rather complicated to bring down teenage experiences to the level of only numbers.
Undeniably, the point with regard to abortion reveals the intricacy in grouping teen pregnancy into plain statistics. Teen pregnancy reports show that most teenagers become distraught after an abortion. One teenager stated that she had given up the desire to live on the very day she had an abortion. She had thrown away all that she had carefully put together. She had discontinued college on account of the anguish and the trauma and had taken to partying, getting into arguments with many of her closest pals. One year later, the ache was still as intense as the day when she had informed her yet to born baby that she regretted taking its life.
Those who should have been thankful are troubled by the experience endlessly due to physical problems. One girl said that she and her husband were trying to have a baby for the last three years. She did not anticipate any problems. In any case, she was aware that she would conceive. After trying for a couple of years, they visited a doctor. After numerous tests were done on both of them, it was diagnosed that her fallopian tubes were blocked following an infection she had contracted after having an abortion when she was nineteen. Due to her reckless teenage ways, her husband and she are now going through the rather tense and frustrating IVF process as it their only prospect of having a baby they so dearly want. The remorse that emerges to the fore every day is too agonizing to bear.
There are others, who feel comforted and thankful that they had an abortion. Another teenager revealed that there was no pain involved physically and what was even more significant was that she was not emotionally shattered. She had made her peace with her God and her decision much before she had undergone the procedure and she was aware that she wanted to give far more to her child than she was capable of giving.
By sharing her encouraging experience, she hoped that somebody who was thinking about an abortion could understand that it was surely not a negative experience they think it is. Numbers can never portray the emotion of being compelled into going in for an abortion, although teenage pregnancy accounts certainly can. According to one teenage account, she thought that deep down she knew she was not prepared for it but she wanted someone to comfort her and tell her that everything was going to be just but sadly there was no one to do so.
Statistics are indeed helpful to receive a brief idea of the common aspects of any situation, but accounts of teenage pregnancies, and not statistics, are required to completely comprehend the experiences of women behind "teen pregnancy scourge."
Statistics On Teenage Pregnancies
This should not be happening in a civilized society; yet, it is! In the name of modernity, a more liberal attitude and a more liberal lifestyle has come into existence, with the result that teenagers have opted to live life on their own terms. Unlike earlier days, teenage pregnancies today cause very few eyebrows to be raised!
USA's cosmopolitan population can be broadly classified into Hispanics, non-Hispanics and Blacks.
Where Hispanic girls were concerned, a survey revealed states like Ohio, Missouri, Mississippi and South Dakota, to have the lowest rate of teenage pregnancies. The rate was between 71 and 115 per 1000. The highest number (between 154 and 169 per 1000) was to be found in Delaware, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia and Tennessee. After 1998, there was a fall in the number of pregnancies in all states, by 19%. This lasted up to 2002.
North Dakota's population of non-Hispanic whites registered the lowest rate of 33 per 1000, while Arkansas showed the highest (77 per 1000). High numbers of teenage pregnancies were recorded in South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee, ranging between 71 and 73 per 1000. Other states in the South were near about the same, though the figure did come down by 34% between 1998 and 2002.
In general, the 'Blacks' who got pregnant were aged around 15 to 19. New Jersey led the table with 209 teenage pregnancies per 1000. States like Oregon, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Delaware showed a rate of 161 to 177 per 1000. A rate of 71 to 114 per 1000 was seen New Mexico, Colorado, West Virginia, Utah and Rhode Island. Statistics did reveal some heartening news that the rate had come down by 40% from 1990 to 2002 in every state.
Overall statistics regarding teenage pregnancies in 2000 revealed that while Nevada recorded the highest number of teen birth rates (113 per 1000), North Dakota exhibited the lowest count (42 per 1000). Compared to states like Texas, Arkansas, New Mexico, Mississippi and Arizona, states like Vermont, Maine, North Dakota, Massachusetts and New Hampshire had much lower teen birth rates.
Since few teenagers wanted to become mothers so soon, abortion became popular too. The number of abortions was highest in 1998. Fortunately, the rate came down by about 50% in 2002.
Looking at abortion statistics, the lowest rates were found in Kentucky, North Dakota, Utah and South Dakota. In fact, lesser than 17% of adolescents in Utah, South Dakota and Kentucky opted to bring their pregnancies to an end. In stark contrast were the states of New Jersey, Nevada, District of Columbia, California, Maryland and New York, where there were abortions galore! Greater than 50% of teenage pregnancies were terminated in the states of the Maryland, District of Columbia, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York.
If your head has stopped whirling after sifting through the above-mentioned figures, consider this, "The lowered rate of teenage pregnancies was due to the fact that by 2003, only about 47% of adolescents indulged in sexual relationships unlike 53% of adolescents in 1993. Today, the use of contraceptives by adolescents is on the rise!"
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