The Role of Birth Control, Transmitted Diseases, and Abstinence in Lowering Teenage Pregnancy Rates

This article discusses the impact of birth control, transmitted diseases, and abstinence education on teenage pregnancy rates. It highlights the importance of educating teenagers on all three factors to make informed decisions about their sexual health. The article also addresses concerns about the Trump administration's abstinence-focused program and its potential impact on safe sex education. Course code and college/university information not mentioned.

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Yesenia Herrera
Professor Stacie Hankinson
English 120
14 October 2018
Cause and Effect
“I want to be able to take care of my children,” Hazel Encarnacion age 16 says. There are
many stories of teenagers around the world that are becoming mothers as early as 15 years old.
Here in the United States the teen pregnancy rate has dropped, but in other parts of the world it
stayed around the same or raised. President Donald Trump’s administration Administration has
pushed on an abstinence in teen pregnancy program. This program will mandate that federal
funded groups to provide information to patient on how to stay abstinent. With this new program
many organizations, that are funded by federal funds, are concerned that their methods on
educating safe sex might not comply with the new program. I believe that this program will fail
if its focus is more towards abstinence. The pregnancy rates have lowered The reason why
teenage pregnancy rates have lower because of safe sex education; birth control, transmitted
diseases, and abstinence.
Birth control is a big factor on why the United States teenage pregnancy rate has dropped.
Around the world like in the Manila, Philippines, their teenagers are not educated on using birth
control. Many of these young teens believe that birth control is only for women that are married
or already have kids. In the U.S. students are educated on birth control and how this can help
with preventing diseases and unwanted pregnancies. It can be from taking the contraceptives,
using condoms, or other birth control options. Birth control should be taught educated to all
teens. They need to know that there are options to protecting themselves if they decide to have
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sex. If we do not educate them they will end up making their own conclusions like the young
adults in Manila and end up with an unwanted pregnancy or disease. The education that you get
of birth control helps you make the right decision, even as adults. Many Manu adults are having
children in later years (30s-40s). The education of birth control has helped bring the rate of
teenage pregnancies. They decide that they are not ready and use birth control to help with that.
As the number of teenage pregnancies went down, the number of adults having them in later
adulthood has gone up. Yes, birth control does help bring the teenage pregnancy down.
Then there is the education on transmitted diseases. Like every teenager, you get your
information from different sources than an adult does; friends, television, social media. If the
friends are uneducated of the risks of having sex they will inform the friend asking wrong facts.
When the adolescences are educated that there are risks to having unprotected sex, they usually
make the right choice and use protection or gets scared of the diseases that may come with
having intercourse. I remember that when I was in high school in my health class, seeing the
images of all the sexual transmitted diseases and being explained in detail the symptoms, the
pain, and all the negative that each disease carries, got me to think twice of having unprotected
sex. Then knowing all the type of diseases and that there are over 20 different disease that you
can acquire with notwithout taking the right precautions. This Which would eventually lead to
the teenager to decide to birth control, use condoms and save themselves the trouble of dealing
with these diseases in such a young age. Transmitted diseases education helped to bring the rate
down, teenage pregnancy, due to fear and teenagers playing it safe and using protection.
The final cause of the teenager pregnancy rate going down is abstinence. This is the
factor the Trump administration wants to focus on. They want us to not “encourage” having sex,
but to “encourage” being abstinent. Abstinence are already being encourage in sex education.
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There are now many more teenagers that are waiting until they are older to have sex. The age
now that most young adults are having intercourse are around the age 18-21. This is in college
years, by this time they young adults are educated and know more about being safe. The
education of transmitted diseases, birth control and knowing that its fine not to have sexual
intercourse during your adolescences, has contributed to abstinence. Abstinence was before look
as “uncool”, and people were made fun of being a virgin. The views of staying abstinent pass
high school are being accepted and respected by adolescences now. Since more teenagers are
trying stay abstinence and not have sexual intercourse, this has helped bring down the pregnancy
rate.
Providing sex education to teenagers in birth control, transmitted diseases and staying
abstinence has helped the teenage pregnancy rate go down. All three factors play upon each
other, if we decide to focus more on only one and give less focus on all three, the rate will go up.
If facilities are encouraging abstinence and pushing them on students what is going to happen is
that the patient will not ask for any more help, such as birth control and the rate of teenage
pregnancy will increase.
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