FREE ESSAY ON TEENAGE PREGNANCY

TEENAGE PREGNANCY

Teenage pregnancy and out-of-wedlock childbearing were central issues in the debate over
welfare reform. They are frequently seen as both the cause of increased welfare costs and
caseloads over the last 25 years, and the result of the welfare system itself. 
Out-of-wedlock births among teenagers have increased dramatically in the last several
decades and now account for almost 70% of all teenage births. Yet, trends in teenage
sexual activity and childbearing reflect broader trends in sexual and reproductive
behavior among women of all ages and income levels. Women age 20 and older, for example,
account for more than three-quarters of the unintended pregnancies and abortions that
occur each year in the United States. Moreover, despite the sharp increase in teenage
out-of-wedlock births, the increase has been even greater among older women. As a result,
teenagers account for a much smaller proportion of out-of-wedlock births today than they
did in the 1970s. 
Contrary to what I previously thought, only 5% of mothers on welfare are teenagers, and
just 1%, or about 32,000, are under age 18. However, a large proportion of women who
begin childbearing as teenagers eventually end up on welfare, and those who do tend to
need assistance for a long period of time. 
Proposals have been based on two basic assumptions: that poor, unmarried teenagers
deliberately get pregnant and have babies in order to collect welfare and set up their
own households; and that a prohibition on benefits will, in and of itself, discourage
out-of-wedlock births. Through the research I've done I found that the great majority of
poor teenagers use contraceptives to prevent pregnancy, and that most births to poor
adolescents are unintended. It also suggests that most women, including teenagers, would
prefer to give birth once they are married. 
This paper examines teenage sexual and reproductive behavior, in addition to key behavior
differences among adolescents of varying income levels. It explores the extent to which
teenage mothers depend on welfare and whether welfare recipients who gave birth as
teenagers differ significantly on certain socioeconomic indicators from those who were
not teenage mothers. It also considers whether current proposals to reduce teenage
pregnancies and out-of-wedlock births among young women on or at risk of welfare are
likely to achieve. 
Teenagers and Sex 
Sexual intercourse during the teenage years has become the norm in the United States.
While intercourse among very young teenagers is still relatively rare more than 8 in 10
adolescents have had intercourse by the time they turn 20. As sex has become more common
at younger ages, historic differences in sexual activity among teenagers of different
races, income levels and religions have decreased. For example, while 60% of poor women
aged 15-19 are sexually experienced, so are 53% of low-income adolescents and 50% of
higher income teenagers. 
Contraceptive Use and Pregnancy
Most teenagers can and do use contraception to avoid sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)
and unintended pregnancies-even the first time they have intercourse. Nearly 60% of poor
and low-income teenage women and about three-quarters of higher income adolescent women
use some method of contraception-usually the condom-the first time they have sex. 
Although their contraceptive use is not perfect, teenagers use contraceptives as
effectively as young, unmarried adults. Adolescent women, in fact, are less likely to
experience a contraceptive failure than unmarried method users in their early 20s. At all
ages, however, higher income women use contraceptives more successfully than lower income
women. Poor and low-income teenagers, for example, are twice as likely as higher income
adolescents to have an unplanned pregnancy while using the pill or the condom. 
Teenagers who become pregnant rarely place a child for adoption; instead, they have an
abortion or give birth and raise the child themselves. About half of pregnancies to
adolescent women end in birth, slightly over a third in abortion and the rest in
miscarriage. Since the late 1980s, the proportion of teenage pregnancies ending in birth
rather than abortion has risen. I would think that the increase may reflect the greater
acceptance of out-of-wedlock births as well as the federal government's policy of
extending Medicaid coverage to prenatal care and delivery services but not abortion. 
Adolescent Childbearing
While sexual activity among teenagers of all income levels is now common, having a baby
is not. Adolescent childbearing is heavily concentrated among poor and low-income
teenagers, most of whom are unmarried. 
Almost three-quarters of higher income teenagers who become pregnant have abortions; they
choose to postpone childbearing so they can complete their education, get a good job,
establish their financial independence and get married before they start a family. Poor
and low-income teenagers, whose prospects for a good education, a decent job and marriage
are dim or nonexistent, often have little incentive to delay childbearing. As a
consequence, disadvantaged young women often continue unplanned pregnancies to term and
raise the children themselves.
Teenage Mothers and Welfare 
AFDC, or Aid to Families with Dependent Children, is the nation's principal welfare
program. It provides cash assistance for needy families. Between 1970-1993, the number of
families on AFDC increased 163%, from 2 million to about 5 million, while benefit
expenditures rose only 44%, from $15.5 billion to $22.3 billion. During that period, the
average monthly AFDC benefit per family declined 45%, from $676 to $373
In 1993, 3.8 million mothers aged 15-44 were AFDC recipients. Fifty-five percent of these
women became mothers when they were teenagers. However, only 191,000, or 5%, were current
teenage mothers, and most of these-159,000-were aged 18-19; young teenagers, those aged
15-17, accounted for just 32,000 of all mothers on AFDC. The remaining 50% were women
aged 20-44 who had their first child as a teenager: 26% of these women were under age 18
when they first gave birth, and 24% were age 18-19 when their first child was born.
Long-term Dependency
It is a sad reality that unmarried women who begin childbearing in their teenage years
very often end up on welfare. According to data collected between the late 1970s and
mid-1980s, three-quarters of unmarried adolescent mothers began receiving welfare within
five years of the birth of their first child. Marriage is no guarantee against welfare,
however, 25% of teenage mothers who were married when they gave birth also went on
welfare within five years. 
Women who choose to give birth as teenagers are among the poorest AFDC recipients: 53% of
current and former teenage mothers on AFDC in 1992 had incomes below 50% of the poverty
line, compared with 41% of women who did not give birth as teenagers. In part, their
poverty reflects the fact that current and former teenage mothers are less likely than
others to receive any financial support from their child's father because they were never
married. And, although current and former teenage mothers on AFDC are as likely to work
as women who did not have a baby as a teenager they earned an average of $1,600 less in
1992. Their lower earnings resulted from a lack of education in 1992, 47% of current and
former teenage mothers on AFDC had graduated from high school, compared with 62% of those
who were older when they gave birth. 
Women on AFDC who began childbearing, as teenagers are more likely to have large families
than women who waited until they were at least age 20 to have a baby. Eighteen percent of
women who had their first child as a teenager have four or more children-twice the
proportion among women who did not give birth as a teenager. 
Because they tend to have less education and larger families, teenage mothers often have
a harder time working their way off of welfare and becoming self-sufficient. As a
consequence, they are disproportionately represented among those recipients who remain on
AFDC for long periods of time. 
Welfare Reform 
The most popular proposals during the welfare reform process are as follows; 
- A denial of AFDC benefits to unmarried teenage mothers under age 18, perhaps with a
state option to extend the ban to even older unwed mothers; 
- A ban on additional benefits for women who have a child while on welfare; and 
- A revival of the gag rule through a prohibition on the use of welfare funds to provide
abortion information and counseling as well as services. 
I feel that the ability to make decisions about whether and when to have a child is an
essential prerequisite to taking charge of one's life. Yet, largely missing from the
public debate on welfare reform is an acknowledgment of this fact and of the importance
of ensuring that poor teenagers and adult women on or at risk of welfare have easy access
to comprehensive family planning and abortion services that would enable them to avoid
unintended pregnancies and unwanted births. 
I can't imagine anyone arguing that family planning and abortion services, by themselves,
are the key to reforming welfare. Nevertheless, their provision on a purely voluntary
basis is a simple, cost-effective strategy that would empower poor women and, at the same
time, have a positive impact on unplanned childbearing. 
Granted, not all women use contraceptives, or use them effectively, but contraception
does work, for teenagers as well as adult women. Publicly funded family planning services
have prevented an average of 1.2 million unintended pregnancies, including 509,000
unintended births and 516,000 additional abortions, each year. Every dollar spent on
publicly subsidized family planning services saves more than $4 that would otherwise be
spent to provide medical care, welfare benefits and other social services to women who by
law would be eligible for such services if they became pregnant and gave birth. 
Meanwhile, public funding of abortion services for Medicaid-eligible women has been
severely restricted since the mid-1970s. Studies have shown that 20-35% of
Medicaid-eligible women (most of whom are AFDC recipients) who would have abortions if
coverage were available continue their pregnancies to term in the absence of coverage-at
a cost of millions of dollars annually to the federal government and the states. 
Conclusion 
Sexual activity is now common among teenagers in the United States, and there is little
difference in levels of sexual activity among adolescents of different income levels.
However, poor and low-income teenagers are less likely to use contraceptives when they
have intercourse, and thus are more likely to experience an unplanned pregnancy. When
they do get pregnant, teenagers from disadvantaged families are also less likely than
their more affluent peers to have an abortion; about 60% of poor teenagers and nearly
half of low-income adolescents continue their pregnancy and give birth. All too often,
the poorest of these young women have-and perceive that they have-futures that are bleak.
They see little reason why having a baby now will make their lives worse, or, why waiting
until later will make their lives better. 
A major challenge is to provide these young women with realistic incentives to wait. That
means guaranteeing them-and their partners-access to the education and training that will
enable them to get good jobs, which, in turn, will give these young people reason to hope
that their lives will improve. It also means assuring that family planning and abortion
services are widely available on a voluntary basis to all poor and low-income teenagers
who want to delay having a baby. 
Efforts to prevent adolescent pregnancies and births must be targeted not just at those
already poor or currently living in welfare families, but at all women at risk of poverty
and welfare, since research shows that most young women who give birth as a teenager do
not immediately go on welfare. Eventually, however, many fall into poverty, and very
often, welfare dependency. 
The currently proposed disincentives to teenage pregnancies and out-of-wedlock births are
misguided in this regard, if for no other reason than because they are targeted largely
at the very small proportion of young women who are likely to go on public assistance
immediately upon the birth of their baby. Yet, very often there is a lag sometimes of
several years between the time most teenagers who eventually become welfare-dependent
give birth and when they actually begin to receive AFDC benefits. These women are not
expecting to go on welfare when they have a child and therefore are unlikely to change
their behavior as a result of restrictions on welfare eligibility related to
childbearing. 
Works Cited
The Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI), The Politics of Blame: Family Planning, Abortion and
the Poor, New York, 1995. 
AGI, Sex and America's Teenagers, New York, 1994. 
General Accounting Office (GAO), Families on Welfare: Sharp Rise in Never-Married Women
Reflects Societal Trend, GAO/HERS-94-92, Washington, D.C., May 1994.
GAO, Families on Welfare: Teenage Mothers Least Likely to Become Self-Sufficient,
GAO/HERS-94-115, Washington, D.C., May 1994.
U.S. House of Representatives, Overview of Entitlement Programs: 1994 Green Book,
Washington, D.C., July 15, 1994.