My Perspective: The War On Our Youth—The Third Generation of Babies Having Babies, Having Babies

In the wake of youth violence in this nation, it astonishes me how no politician, civic leader or religious leader has mentioned that part of the problem with youth violence today is that we are in the early stages of the third generation of babies having babies, having babies. No one can deny that a part of the problem in youth violence has to deal with the fact that kids are having kids and we are in the third generation of it. The generation of teenagers we have now have parents who never matured themselves because their parents started getting pregnant and having children between the ages of 13-18. Now this generation itself is continuing the same trends of their parents because they are also in the midst of getting pregnant even early than their parents with many of them starting at age 12.

Still no one can deny that this third generation of babies having babies, having babies is playing a huge role in the youth violence issue. This war on our youth is amazing because so many factors have contributed such as drugs, fatherless homes, and mothers never really having their teen years have resulted in many youth raising themselves in these tough economic times and identity life generation. Still some might say that this third generation of babies having babies, having babies is perplexing because some say that young mothers have encouraged their daughters to get pregnant in order to receive more welfare benefits but that notion has never been proven and is just speculation. The fact that we are having are having grandmothers in this nation in their early 30s and mothers in their early teens than we have a real issue in this nation that we have to deal with.

Teen pregnancy in this nation is no longer an issue that plagues one generation or a part of society but it is an issue that results in the matter of bad parenting habits that only lead to the issue to youth. Teen pregnancy has always gone up and down but the reality is that sometimes numbers don’t tell the entire truth of the problem. For example, in the United States, there were 4,317,119 births in the U.S. with 435,436 births being by teens 15-19 years old which is only 10% of the total births in 2007. Now that number is low in some people’s eyes and one would think that teen pregnancy is not as bad as society would want one to think. Still that doesn’t include youth 12-14 in it but nonetheless if we look at the birth rate per population than I think anyone would feel that teen pregnancy is a major issue. The U.S. birth rate for 2007 was 14.3 per 1,000 population but for teens 15-19 it is 41.9 per 1,000 population. Then the U.S. fertility rate was 69.5 birth per 1000 women aged 15-44 years. Also the percent of unmarried births in the U.S. was 39.7% and you can imagine how much larger that percentage is amongst teens 15-19 years old.

The United States has the highest rates of teen pregnancy and births in the western industrialized world. Teen pregnancy costs the United States at least $7 billion annually. The fact that just under 1/3 of all girls in the United States will get pregnant in their teenage years is a sobering thought. Obviously, teen pregnancy is a problem in the United States. And the following statistics back that up: Every year around 750,000 teenagers will get pregnant. Depending on the state, teenage birth rates are incredibly different. Nevada has the highest rate: 113 per 1000 and North Dakota the lowest 42 per 1000. Unmarried teenagers having children account for 24 percent of all unmarried expectant mothers. More than 2/3 of all teenagers who have a baby will not graduate from high school. Lastly billions of dollars are spent taking care of teenage mothers and their children and they are more likely to be in the poverty bracket. On the flip side, millions of dollars are spent in prevention programs.

The good news is that teen births have dropped by almost a third since the beginning of the 1990s. With pregnancy prevention programs and more understanding and teaching about safe sex, this number will hopefully drop even more. Here are a few other statistics that hopefully point to even better prevention rates in the years to come. In 2002 the abortion rate among teenager mother was 50 percent lower than its high point in 1988. Among black teenagers, the pregnancy rate dropped around 40 percent since 1990. Among Hispanic teenagers the pregnancy rate dropped around 19 percent since 1990. Among white teenagers, the pregnancy rate dropped around 34 percent since 1990. So while teenage pregnancies are dropping, it is still a constant problem as there are more and more kids who enter their teenager years each year. Teenage pregnancy programs are important to as the above statistics are showing that these programs yield good results. These programs should be continually studied to make sure they are up-to-date and working in the education of teenagers on the problems of teenage pregnancy.

One way of making sure to keep the programs fresh is to talk with the teenagers themselves, asking what they think about sex and how it is portrayed in their school life, by their friends, in their families, and in the media. How much does each of these contribute to how a teenager views sex? Parents and educators are in a position to somewhat monitor how sex and especially unsafe sex is being digested by the teenagers today. As more questions are answered and prevention programs initiated and/or updated, hopefully these statistics can continually to fall. As mentioned above, billions of dollars are spent taking care of teenage mothers and their children while only millions are needed to provide good prevention program. For more information on teenage pregnancy prevention, see the Preventing Teenage Pregnancy article on this site.

Teenage birth rates have gone up and down over the last 60+ years. Where do the teenage birth rates stand now? The statistics point to a downward trend, which hopefully can be continued in the coming years. From 1940 to 1957 the teenage birth rate climbed a staggering 78 percent. It then dropped until the mid-1980s when it jumped 24 percent. T hen in the early 1990s, it began to decline and has continued to decline since. What has helped fuel this decline in the recent years? Research is pointing to teenage pregnancy prevention programs, contraception availability and just overall more education on the problems associated with teenage pregnancy and unsafe sex to the drop in numbers. In looking at a state-by-state comparison, the drop in numbers varies. A s of 2004, the number of live births to teenage mothers across the United States was 415,408. And the number of births to teenagers in the United States aged 15-19 was 41.2 out of a 1,000.

Unfortunately the United States still has the highest rate of teenage pregnancies when compared to other counties of similar status. Some have questioned this because they do not feel the teenagers in the United States are any more sexually active than those in similar countries. It goes back to education about sex and pregnancy prevention within the schools and homes. More should and can be done to help the teenage birth rates decline even more. Teenagers who have babies are more likely to not finish high school and have their future plans interrupted. This leads to less income and more people in poverty. Also, babies born to teenager moms have a more likely chance of having a low birth weight and this can lead to all sorts of medical problems later in life. And if these children grow up in homes where their families have a hard time supporting them, they grow up in poverty and do not always have access to good and sometimes any healthcare.

Teaching teenagers about safe sex and the problems associated with pregnancy can go a long way in helping the teenager birth rate to continue to drop. Some scholars point out that more readily available contraception can help teenagers make safe sex decisions while still others feel this will only aggravate the problem. The only true way to avoid sexually-transmitted diseases and pregnancy is abstinence. However not everyone values abstinence so pregnancy prevention programs also promote safe sex practices. Parents, concerned about the physical and emotional well-being of their children, often wonder where they can get information about how likely it is that their teens are engaging in sexual activity. Teen sex statistics make it clear that it is important to speak with children about safe sex and appropriate sexual behavior when they are younger. This is because, according to the Guttmacher Institute, by the age of 19, 70 percent of teenagers have engaged in sexual intercourse. This means that the chances are that your children will have sex as teenagers. Not talking about it won’t change anything.

Parents have a unique window of opportunity to educate their children about sexual intercourse and other issues related to sex. By age 15, only 13 percent of teenagers have had sex. This means that, on average, most teens do not become sexually active until after the age of 15 – with most kids have sex for the first time around the age of 17. While this might seem alarming, the Guttmacher Institute reports that this represents a shift; teens are actually waiting longer to have sex. However, even with this delay, teens are still having sex. It is also worth noting that of those teenagers who do not have sex by the time they are 20, 10 percent have engaged in oral sex. Most females have sex for the first time with a partner who is between one and three years older. For the most part, the first sexual experience had by teen girls is with someone they are seeing regularly: boyfriend, fiancé, live-in partner or husband. It is worth noting that the younger a teen girl is when she has her first sexual experience, the more likely it is that it was involuntary.

While it can be uncomfortable, and many parents do not want their children learning about safe sex topics like contraceptives and even sexually transmitted illnesses (STIs), there is some merit to instructing teenagers in the proper use of products meant to encourage safe sex. Here are statistics revolving around contraceptives. It is clear that education in this area can help prevent unwanted pregnancies: If a sexually active teen does not use contraceptives, there is a 90 percent chance that she will become pregnant inside a year. Most sexually active females use some sort of birth control. A condom is most common, since access to the pill is limited. 70 percent of teens whose parents are unaware of their sexual activity would not use contraceptives if their parents were made aware of their visits to family planning centers and clinics. 21 states (plus the District of Columbia) allow contraceptive services without parental involvement. The other states – with the exception of Utah and Texas, where parental consent is necessary – have notification policies, but consent is not required. 20 percent of teens whose parents are unaware of their contraceptive use say that they would continue having sex – even if methods of contraception were not available to them. Of all the developed nations, the U.S. has the highest rate of teen pregnancy. The U.S. has a teen pregnancy rate that is twice that of England and Canada and eight times that as Japan and the Netherlands. 82 percent of pregnancies amongst teens are unplanned. About 20 percent of all intended pregnancies each year are related to teenagers. 29 percent of teen pregnancies end in abortion. Most parents support a teen’s choice to have an abortion.

Sexually transmitted illnesses are serious. Proper education could curb the spread of STIs among teenagers. Here are some teen sex stats related to STDs: 48 percent of new cases of STIs occur among those aged 15 to 24. Teens represent only about 25 percent of the sexually active population. This makes the incidence of STDs in teenagers rather high, proportionally. HPV accounts for close to half of the diagnosed STD cases each year for 14 to 24 year olds. When one looks at the teen sex statistics, it is clear that most teenagers have sex. It appears that education can help delay teen pregnancy and even the age at which teens have sex. Fewer teens are having sex at an earlier age in the U.S. and the teen pregnancy rate is going down. This seems to indicate that improvement is being made on some levels.

Nonetheless, we are in the midst of babies having babies, having babies which is why when it comes to youth violence and the war on our youth, we need to find a way to teach parenting skills to our young mothers and fathers while at the same time continuing to lower teen pregnancy while also preventing teens from having sex an earlier age. For anyone to ignore this as we fight this war on our youth than they are simply ignoring the fact that youth violence in this nation has a lot to do with this third generation pandemic that has hit our society like a thief in the night. But we all saw the trends and have watched it happen but now it is time to make sure that a 4th generation of babies having babies, having babies, having babies doesn’t emerge from this. This is the moment where we can win this war on our youth while at the time decreasing youth violence, teen pregnancy and teen sexual activity in the process.

It takes a village to raise a child and it will take politicians, community leaders, civic leaders, religious leaders, educators, students and parents as well as other family members to engage in this issue if we are to improve this matter. We can’t ignore this and despite the fact that the numbers show teen pregnancy is lowering, it is hard to tell in many areas in this nation which is why this fight can’t be lost and must be won. If we can solve teen pregnancy, improve parenting schools in our communities and prevent the early ages of teen sexual activity than perhaps we can decrease future youth violence while figuring out ways to solve the present youth violence issues that are plaguing our society. This is the moment of truth that we can perhaps change our society once and for all as we improve America for the better by saving our youth today rather than tomorrow.

It is time to finally talk about the third generation of babies having babies, having babies than we need to find solutions to this problem and we need to implement them. This is the only way we will win this war on our youth by winning battles like this.