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Summary: Over the past couple of years, teenage consumption of alcohol has risen dramatically. Reason for teenage drinking represents a daring gesture that leads the teenagers towards other rebellious acts like pregnancy. Sex, is a very common word today. Sex is so common it is on television screens, blown up on billboards, and used for commercial enticement. It also seems that teenage men are purchasing cars and teenage girls are receiving more freedom from their parents. Therefore we need to educate our children on this debatable topic.

Pregnancy And Abortion

While sex is a small word, it is an immense proposition. Sex can be a significant way to share love with another human being, and yet it is often the root cause of embarrassment, distress, and even disease or death. It is the instinct that ensures the progression of our species, but it is also the drive that can consequently bring the most self-destructive outcomes.

Sexual desires can be mind-boggling to young people, but can also present problems for adults. The outcome for the choices we make in our sexual behaviors can have far reaching effects. Some of the consequences are positive and some are negative, even implicitly life-threatening. Planning a pregnancy with a partner to whom one is committed, and then conceiving a child, is generally a positive consequence. Conceiving a child as a result of having sex with someone who is not a lifetime partner is likely to have very negative impact. The act itself may be the same, but the consequences will possibly be contrary. Sexuality and the rules associated with it diversify from individual to individual, from culture to culture, and across time periods throughout history.

Teen pregnancy is an exhausting feeling for most teens and their parents. The pregnancy doesn't just happen while you're having fun, but that many poor teenage girls become pregnant on intent, as the best way they see for achieving love and security. They continue to follow that route until they are convinced that they have a better choice. Today, we face many moral dilemmas but all of them are virtually impossible to solve. One of the most strenuous and debatable issues that we are faced with is abortion.

There are many strong arguments both for and against the right to have an abortion. These arguments are so complicated that it becomes impossible to resolve. The dilemma of this issue lies in the different aspects of the debate. The essence of a person, rights, and who is entitled to these rights, are a few of the many aspects that are very hard to define. There are also issues of what basis would justify abortion. Since, the issue of abortion is virtually impossible to solve, all we can hope to do is understand the different aspects of the argument so that if he or she is faced with that issue in their own lives, they would be able to make educated and pondering decisions in dealing with it. When describing the essence of something, one needs to describe the necessary and sufficient conditions of that thing, which can vary from biological to rational standpoint. The concept of human rights, that is to say, what people dictates as human rights, conflicts heavily with itself.

On one hand, we form an abstract and ponderous opinion on one's right to life. On the other, we hold an evenly strong opinion on one's freedom to live that life as they please. This varies from culture to culture. American society has by and large has a firm belief in the individual life to live as they please. This society also holds the firm belief in one's right to the power of his or her own body, equal to that of one's right to live. In this case, it is imperative that we understand what liberties we can and cannot take upon ourselves concerning our lives. The difficulty in this dilemma lies within the question of whether or not an abortion falls into a category of preservation of a woman's right's over the sovereignty of her own body, or whether it falls into a different category of an action which is not permissible because, according to some people, the fetus is a person whose life and freedom is being compromised. The question of rights is further complicated by the different circumstances where the abortion issue could be raised. Many people would argue that abortion should not be used as birth control or as a medium to deal with the consequences of promiscuous sex. However, how does one address the abortion issue in the circumstance of rape or incest? Many say that in these circumstances, abortion is justified. The confusing thing is that the outcome is the same in both circumstances. The fetus is being denied its right to live and grow to its potential as a human being. Where does one draw the line? What with regard to a case where there is medical complications? For instance, a woman becomes pregnant and goes to the doctor for an examination. During the doctor visit, various tests are run and it is discovered that the baby will be born severely deformed and that its quality of life would be extremely substandard. If the woman were to have an abortion, would it be justified? What about a situation where a woman becomes pregnant and she goes to the doctor and is told that the baby is deformed and the birth would most likely kill the mother. The argument justifying abortion in this case goes back to the right to physical sovereignty over one's own body. People have the freedom to do what he or she wants to concerning their own body as long as it does not harm or compromise the freedom of another, except in self-defense. Therefore, in the case of the mother who would most likely die in childbirth, an abortion could be justified because she is acting in self-defense. And in the case of rape, many argue that an abortion is also justified since the woman's right to not conceive has been violated, therefore she should not be responsible for the consequences, which came through no fault of her own. As on can see, the issue of abortion is on e that is extremely complicated. The problem beings that many of the ethical dilemmas involved in the abortion issue are so closely intertwined that they are difficult to distinguish from one another. There are some aspects of the issue that would convince most people that abortion is justified, however when those aspects are combined with other intertwining aspects and imperatives, justification oftentimes becomes impossible. In conclusion, the issue of abortion is so complicated and controversial that it is unlikely that a consensus could be reached by American society. There are too many aspects of the issue which peoples views vary to widely. Some of these issues could be things such as the definition of a person, is the fetus a person, and if so when does it officially become a person. There is also the issue of rights. Do the rights of a person outweigh the rights of a non-person i.e. the fetus. Does the right of a mother's sovereignty over her body outweigh the right of an unborn child to live. The answers to these questions are very incomparable as a result of the diversity of the American society. With the issue of abortion, one's feeling towards it is going to be based on many things such as religious background and personal morals. There is no black and white answer to the abortion issue. Luckily we live in a country where we are able to decide for ourselves whether something is morally right or wrong. Thus, at last, the choice is ours. As with the many other ethical issues, which we are faced with in our society, it is hard to come to a true answer until we are individually faced with that issue. All we can do is make an effort to know all of the aspects which are involved so that we may be able to make a sound decision if we were faced with this problem in our own lives. 1 Teenage pregnancy is an adult problem. Ms. Fonda identified five basic causes of teenage pregnancies. The first is poverty: about 80 percent of pregnant teens come from poor families. Next is sexual abuse, which must be stopped: "a girl who has been abused early in life will lose the sense of her value later on." School failure is another cause; it leads children to lose faith in them. The fourth reason is a lack of good parenting; on this both advocates of adolescent reproductive health and social conservatives could agree, she said. The fifth cause is a lack of reproductive health services for adolescents. While sexual abstinence should be encouraged, Ms. Fonda said, adequate reproductive health services should be provided to those who do not abstain. You're not going to reduce teen pregnancy if you're not working in youth and community development," Ms. Fonda stressed. The various community groups that work with teenagers should be brought together to complement each other's efforts. Adequate and value-free sexual education should be combined with efforts to teach young people to become employable. Preventing unwanted teenage pregnancies requires a holistic approach, she said. "It cannot be just a medical paradigm." 2 Pregnancy, birth and abortion rates among U.S. teenagers continued their downward trend in 1996. Nationwide, the pregnancy rate declined 4% between 1995 and 1996, from 101.1 to 97.3 pregnancies per 1,000 women aged 15-19. The rate has dropped 9% since 1986 and, more significantly, 17% since peaking in 1990.

The birthrate for teenagers also declined 4% between 1995 and 1996, to 54.4 births per 1,000 women (Table 1). Although the 1996 rate was 8% higher than the 1986 rate, it was 12% lower than the peak rate of 62.1 births per 1,000 reached in 1991. Teenagers' abortion rate declined 3% between 1995 and 1996 (Table 1). Since 1986, the rate has dropped 31%, to 29.2 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-19. At the same time, the proportion of teenage pregnancies ending in abortion has fallen from 46% to 35%--a decline of 24%.

White and black adolescents have experienced declines in pregnancy rates, although the magnitude of the changes has varied considerably. Among black women aged 15-19, the nationwide pregnancy rate fell 20% between 1990 and 1996; among white teenagers, it declined 16% during that time (Table 1). The pregnancy rate among Hispanic teenagers, who can be of any race, increased between 1990 and 1992, but then, fell 6% by 1996

Roughly 880,000 pregnancies occurred among women aged 15-19 in 1996; 62% of these pregnancies were to 18-19-year olds. California reported the highest number of adolescent pregnancies (126,300), followed by Texas, New York, Florida and Illinois (with about 40,000-80,000 each). The smallest numbers of teenage pregnancies were in Vermont, North Dakota, Wyoming, South Dakota and Alaska, all of which reported fewer than 2,000 pregnancies among women, aged 15-19. Teenage pregnancy rates in 1996 varied widely by state, ranging from 50 pregnancies per 1,000 women aged 15-19 in North Dakota to 140 per 1,000 in Nevada and 256 per 1,000 in the District of Columbia. The highest state adolescent pregnancy rates after Nevada's were found in California, Arizona, Florida and Texas. Minnesota, New Hampshire, Maine and Iowa had the lowest rates after North Dakota's. Wide variation is also seen in state teenage birthrates for 1996 (Table 4). The highest rates (70-75 births per 1,000 women aged 15-19) were found in Mississippi, Arkansas, Arizona, Texas and New Mexico; in the District of Columbia, 102 births occurred per 1,000 teenage women. The lowest rates (29-32 per 1,000) were in New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Minnesota and Massachusetts.

Statewide teenage abortion rates were highest (45-53 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-19) in New York, Nevada, New Jersey, Maryland and California (Table 4); the rate in the District of Columbia was 121 per 1,000. Teenagers in Utah, North Dakota, South Dakota, West Virginia, Idaho and Iowa had the lowest abortion rates (8-12 abortions per 1,000). Overall, 35% of pregnancies among 15-19-year olds ended in abortion in 1996 (Table 4). However, in New Jersey, nearly six in 10 (58%) teenage pregnancies ended in abortion; the proportion also exceeded 50% in New York, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. By contrast, only 15% of pregnancies among teenagers in Utah ended in abortion; the proportion was also below 20% in Oklahoma, Mississippi, Kentucky, Arkansas, Louisiana and West Virginia. Between 1985 and 1996, teenage pregnancy rates declined in 47 states; in the remaining three (Illinois, Indiana and Nevada) and the District of Columbia, rates declined between 1992 and 1996 . In 27 states and the District of Columbia, teenage birthrates were higher in 1996 than in 1985; in all but one of these states, however, the rate was lower in 1996 than in 1992. Teenage abortion rates declined in every state between 1985 and 1996. In the District of Columbia, the rate was higher in 1996 than in 1985, but it declined between 1992 and 1996.

Different views about teenage pregnancy and abortion have been given. Some of them are as follows:

3 Is this a good way of reducing births to teenagers? Some social commentators suggest that the positive promotion of abortion to teenagers would go a long way to reducing the problem that we currently face. This certainly seems to have worked in other European countries, but may bring with it unforeseen problems. Abortion is a traumatic experience in any woman's life, and if that woman is emotionally immature, this anguish might be magnified. It also ignores the very real sensitivities of the girls concerned. Repeated studies show that younger girls are actually more opposed to the concept of abortion than their older counterparts, and if it is considered that they are not emotionally able to cope with motherhood, it is unlikely that they are likewise able to cope with abortion. There are also of course, very real societal and religious concerns associated with abortion, that once again these girls may be ill prepared to cope with.

4 A survey of sexual attitudes and lifestyles in 1991/2 reported that 1 in 5 young women first have sex before the age of 16. Of these girls around half did not use any form of contraceptive despite being aware of the risks of pregnancy. Even with girls over the age of 16, a third still did not use contraceptives. The reasons for this could be as simple as embarrassment. Although this might suggest to many of us that this clearly signifies that these girls are not mature enough to engage in sexual relations, the reality is that many do. More therefore needs to be done to bring home the message of teenage pregnancy, as although girls seem aware of the biological facts, many of them admit to not having fully thought through the consequences. Programs such as when teenagers are given a life-size doll to look after for a week, which 'wakes' in the night, and needs changing as babies do, seems to have positive results, with teenagers being appalled at the reality that a birth would bring.

5 It's single-handedly responsible for the decline of Western civilization. Charles Murray was the first to sound the alarm in an acclaimed 1993 Wall Street Journal editorial that declared that "illegitimacy is the single most important social problem of our time--more important than crime, drugs, poverty, illiteracy, welfare or homelessness, because it drives everything else." California Gov. Pete Wilson concurred: "All of the problems tearing apart the fabric of our society have deep roots in the exploding epidemic of out-of-wedlock births."

Some of the elder statesmen have also voiced their concern for this dilemma. 6 Jesse Jackson put in his two cents: "Babies having babies is morally wrong." And Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala chimed in: "I don't like to put this in moral terms. But I do believe that having children out of wedlock is just wrong." President Clinton claimed in his 1995 State of the Union Address that "the epidemic of teen pregnancies and births where there is no marriage is our most serious social problem," and his domestic policy adviser William Galston declared an "all-out cultural war" against teen pregnancy.

Conclusion: Over the past couple of years, teenage consumption of alcohol has risen dramatically. Reason for teenage drinking represents a daring gesture that leads the teenagers towards other rebellious acts like pregnancy. Sex, is a very common word today. Sex is so common it is on television screens, blown up on billboards, and used for commercial enticement. It also seems that teenage men are purchasing cars and teenage girls are receiving more freedom from their parents. Therefore we need to educate our children on this debatable topic.

Over the past couple of years, teenage consumption of alcohol has risen dramatically. Reason for teenage drinking represents a daring gesture that leads the teenagers towards other rebellious acts like pregnancy. Sex, is a very common word today. Sex is so common it is on television screens, blown up on billboards, and used for commercial enticement. It also seems that teenage men are purchasing cars and teenage girls are receiving more freedom from their parents. Therefore we need to educate our children on this debatable topic.

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