J.+Golidy

TEEN PREGNANCY   Teen pregnancy is one of the most difficult experiences a young person might ever face when it interrupts school or other plans. It can create an emotional crisis resulting in feelings of shame and fear, and it may appear that you will crumble under pressures in your environment. The stress of how you are going to break this news to your parents might be even greater, and finding help may seem an impossible task. You might think no one can help you, or you might be too embarrassed to search for help. However, denying the pregnancy or ignoring it can only make things worse for you and your baby. Denial will not take the pregnancy away; instead, you will lose the time you could have invested in prenatal care and counseling. You have options, and making a choice may be simple or difficult, depending on your situation. Check resources carefully and try to give yourself the opportunity to make the best informed decision possible.  is one of the most critical issues facing America today. The explosion of out-of-wedlock teen births is a crisis that threatens to undermine our nation. Each year, one million American teenagers become pregnant. 175,000 give birth to their first child. As a result, the United States now has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the Western World.  The costs of teen pregnancy are staggering. Teen mothers are less likely to complete high school, less likely to get married, and more likely to go on welfare than their peers. And the odds are stacked against the children of teen parents from the minute they are born. Their health is poorer, their cognitive development is slower, and their behavioral problems are worse than their peers. Teen pregnancy robs teens of their childhood and their futures as productive adults. It also robs their children, and their children's children.  The teen pregnancy crisis costs taxpayers an estimated $6.9 billion in lost tax revenues and increased spending on public assistance, health care, foster care and the criminal justice system. As a nation, we can no longer afford the consequences of teen pregnancy .  * Some 560,000 teenage girls give birth each year. Almost one-sixth of all U.S. births are to teenage women.


 * Babies born to young teen mothers have a higher risk of serious health problems.
 * Physical and mental birth defects affect many babies born to very young women. The high rate of teenagers having babies is a national health and social problem that demands attention.