Primetime: Family Secrets Ending Teen Pregnancy

What's the Solution For Teen Pregnancy?

June 22, 2009

Everyone has their idea of what will lessen a teen's risk of having a baby— from preaching abstinence to safe sex education and initiating the birds and the bees conversation earlier with children. But, the statistics are on the rise and shows like MTV's 16 and Pregnant focus more on the dilemmas kids having kids have — like not breastfeeding for fear their boobs will sag or that they are cuddling an infant in the middle of the night while their peers are trying to sneak in past curfew. Tomorrow night, Primetime: Family Secrets will air a report which follows four families dealing with teen pregnancy and its aftermath along with anecdotes like the 12-steps to correctly putting on a condom. What do you think is the answer to ending teen pregnancy in America?

15 Comments

jransom94 3 years 15 weeks

I agree, parents need to be a part of their children's life's if not then their kids going to go out and have their own lives and the parents can't do anything about it. I also feel like parents give their kids a little to much privacy. If they want privacy then tell them to get a job and get a lease.

3 years 46 weeks

Well, since I'm living proof that a comprehensive sex education starting from a young age (4th grade) doesn't lead to premarital sex, and there are way too many examples of ignorant and misinformed sexually active teens who only receive abstinence-only, I definitely thing society needs to step it up and be real with our kids. Sex can be wonderful, but it can also be dangerous- physically, emotionally, spiritually. People need to understand WHY they shouldn't have sex too young. They need to know how they may be hurt by having sex before they're ready, what the consequences are, what risks they're taking. And then, when they are ready, how do they minimize those risks. Even married people need to minimize the risks of sex, and it's hard sorting through the options if you've never been exposed to the choices before.

shannonkay 3 years 47 weeks

I am for encouraging abstinence but I agree that all the stuff should be taught in health class or wherever it's appropriate. I mean, they're probably going to need it eventually even if they wait until marriage.Sex is an adult responsibility. Teens should know that there's the chance of pregnancy if they have sex.

shannonkay 3 years 47 weeks

I am for encouraging abstinence but I agree that all the stuff should be taught in health class or wherever it's appropriate. I mean, they're probably going to need it eventually even if they wait until marriage. Sex is an adult responsibility. Teens should know that there's the chance of pregnancy if they have sex.

3 years 47 weeks

I total disagree with queenegg. I had my son when I was only 16 and it did NOT change my life for the worse. you chose if it makes your life worse. I went to school and made sure I was able so I could make a better life for my son.

NadiaPotter 3 years 47 weeks

you can't blame this on TV or celebrities. By teen age they should know how hard is to raise someone, but they don'tWhy, because we make their life so easy. They don't do their laundry, or do their lunch, or even their bed. In hard words, they should earn their living.Ask your mothers, they can tell you stories of them helping around the house, and that being so natural that it wasn't a punishment. Now, you put a 13 year old to clean their room and they yell, kick and scream of what an injustice it is.Teens now have their priorities very wrong placed. I constantly telling boys around me how a tv/computer/cell/movies/games are a luxury, not a obligation of their parents.So they think that they have the power of having sex without consequences, well, they even think taht going to school is a unfair job that their parents and teachers are doing to give them a hard time.

NadiaPotter 3 years 47 weeks

you can't blame this on TV or celebrities. By teen age they should know how hard is to raise someone, but they don't Why, because we make their life so easy. They don't do their laundry, or do their lunch, or even their bed. In hard words, they should earn their living. Ask your mothers, they can tell you stories of them helping around the house, and that being so natural that it wasn't a punishment. Now, you put a 13 year old to clean their room and they yell, kick and scream of what an injustice it is. Teens now have their priorities very wrong placed. I constantly telling boys around me how a tv/computer/cell/movies/games are a luxury, not a obligation of their parents. So they think that they have the power of having sex without consequences, well, they even think taht going to school is a unfair job that their parents and teachers are doing to give them a hard time.

3 years 47 weeks

I agree with all of you! Teach it all! Teach how to be safe, what the consequenses are, and why it's better to remain abstinant. Of course not having sex is the safest, will keep you from getting pregnant and from getting a STI, but we know that at some point in everyone's lives they will have sex. Even if it's after marriage, one should still fully understand the ramifications of sex. Just because you waited until you got married for intercourse doesn't mean you're ready to be a parent, so knowing how to have safe sex would be a very good idea, no? Knowledge is never a bad thing.

queenegg 3 years 47 weeks

I am the product of teen pregnancy. My mom was 16 when she conceived me and 17 when I was born. She started her senior year the same year I was born (1979), so this has always been a big issue for me because it has effected me from a very earliy age. Anyway, I believe that people who have gone through it, like my mom and dad, should be in schools telling about how I changed their lives for the worse (yes, they love me, but there's not much in the way of benefits for them which came from my birth). They've never gone to college, they have low paying jobs, they've divorced multiple times, and they've never been able to be young adults. There's more, but that's just a few things. My parents, who love me, would have been better parents had they had the chance to be teens. It makes me want to cry thinking about all these young people having babies because there's so many lives which are changed for the worse.

queenegg 3 years 47 weeks

runningesq 3 years 47 weeks

Teach it all: in my opinion, sexual eduation should be about the physical, mental, and emotional consequences of sex. Teach birth control, teach STDs, teach the true costs of babies. Pretending teenagers don't or won't have sex DOES NOT prevent teen pregnancies. The safest sex is no sex, of course, but education will go a long way toward safER sex.

bluepuppybites 3 years 47 weeks

I agree kia, I went to school in a community with abstinence only education, and well they don't educate anything except that sex is bad, don't do it. Sad as it is I got most of my sex education from reading Cosmo and Seventeen magazines, not my parents. The women's health clinic isn't bad here but not the best, but they will make you take a thorough sexual health class before you are given anything like exams or birth control. That's where I went when I became sexual active.

kia 3 years 47 weeks

This is hitting way too close to home lately. I have two young family friends being raised in an area where there is abstinence only education and they just recently became sexually active (a few months apart). Given that I have taught Human Bio at a university and the STD/pregnancy lectures they were sent to my direction and I am appalled at what they didn't know. These girls and boys are completely ignorant and calls to the womens clinics in their area were just as bad, "teens here don't do that." I felt like it was a bad after school special.I am all for non-biased education. It is more than a pregnancy issue for these young men and women, it is a health issue and they are engaging in sexual acts as ignorant fools.I think parents need to be the primary sex-ed educators, but that is not always an option. Kids can't be afraid to say the word condom in their communities if they live in areas that preach abstinence-only.This whole issue is weird for me. I dated a peer educator when I lost my virginity and volunteered with an AIDS hospice at the time. I was very educated about unsafe/unprotected sex from a young age. It is only as an adult that I am learning how many young people are kept in the dark.

kia 3 years 47 weeks

This is hitting way too close to home lately. I have two young family friends being raised in an area where there is abstinence only education and they just recently became sexually active (a few months apart). Given that I have taught Human Bio at a university and the STD/pregnancy lectures they were sent to my direction and I am appalled at what they didn't know. These girls and boys are completely ignorant and calls to the womens clinics in their area were just as bad, "teens here don't do that." I felt like it was a bad after school special. I am all for non-biased education. It is more than a pregnancy issue for these young men and women, it is a health issue and they are engaging in sexual acts as ignorant fools. I think parents need to be the primary sex-ed educators, but that is not always an option. Kids can't be afraid to say the word condom in their communities if they live in areas that preach abstinence-only. This whole issue is weird for me. I dated a peer educator when I lost my virginity and volunteered with an AIDS hospice at the time. I was very educated about unsafe/unprotected sex from a young age. It is only as an adult that I am learning how many young people are kept in the dark.

bluepuppybites 3 years 47 weeks

There will always be a problem with teen pregnancy. It won't go away. I think parents need to be more involved with their children's lives and teach them that all choices have consequences. I know that sounds simple enough, but I'm just going by what I plan on doing with my own kids. I also think somehow, babies and having them has been glamorized by celebrities and shows, and they make it look like fun and not work.

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