Envision your teenage daughter suddenly comes up to you and says, “I’m pregnant”. Your first instinct would be, “Are you serious?” or “You’re joking right?”. You are in shock, and you don’t know what to do. You are at a loss for words at the news that your daughter has a baby growing inside her now. Not to mention at a ripe age where education and social life is incredibly important. There are two ways to react. You can either be happy, and excited, or nervous, angry, anxious, and scared. Most of the time, it’s the latter. Not only do parents stop supporting their children, but they completely disown them as well, cutting all ties and leaving said minor to take care of themselves and a growing baby all by themselves.
Now not only can teenage pregnancy cause a family disruption, it also causes medical risks to the mother and the child as well. Pregnant teens have a higher risk of getting high blood pressure than women who are in their adulthood. They also a have a higher risk of preeclampsia. Furthermore, one might have a premature birth and low-birth-weight-baby as a result that follows teen pregnancy. After birth, the mother may have a higher risk of postpartum depression. Teens drown themselves in depression and loneliness, due to the lack of family support. Without parental support, the teen will have a harder time getting through pregnancy, because they’re not financially stable and the doctor visits cost a fortune. Without support from parents and without care from doctors, how can the 15-year-old girl survive with a baby in her uterus?
Mt. Sinai Hospital is a hospital based in New York that is known for their family plans not only for adults but adolescents as well. Their Comprehensive Reproductive Care is a health care option that many parents in their area sign their teenagers up with and encourages others to do as well. This specific health care plan includes gynecology exams, sexually transmitted disease counselling, emergency contraception, and Family Communication. Under this specific bullet point is listed options such as Abstinence Support, Family Planning, and Partner Negotiation. These options help young people make responsible decisions so they can stay healthy. Their multidisciplinary team unites with young people to inform them completely on services and tools that can help them make responsible decisions.
Mt. Sinai is not the only hospital who does this. There are many hospitals that offer these kinds of services, and they all vary in what they offer and how much they do. The resources are there to prevent teenage pregnancy. Which leads to our next point: We are not against the support of teen pregnancy or for adolescent pregnancy services. We simply are not encouraging it. If someone is in a situation that not only endangers them but their child because of an irresponsible decision they made that could have been preventable, obviously we support services and plans that help those individuals.
According to healthresearchfunding.org, many things could be lost at the cost of having a child you aren’t ready for such as education, or a social life. An education is not essential to raise a child, but it can create difficulties when they become your age and you didn’t continue your education (many minors don’t go to school after having a kid. It isn’t impossible, it’s just difficult and unlikely). Having that in mind, an incomplete education makes finding employment hard.
In conclusion, there are many reasons why early teen pregnancy is a plague to their youth, and that it’s a taboo that we want to prevent at all costs.
StarPathDesign 
truc and bunmi,
great blog post! I do see your points and arguments, which are good, but being your opponent team, I do disagree in some ways. As you stated, premature births is high in teen pregnancies and afterwards depression, but what I argue most about this is in general birth defects. For example, a birth defect that is becoming more and more common in today’s society is autism due to the mothers being at an older age. In general, becoming pregnant at a young age is rather risky simply because the female body has more complications. Though having a child at a young age is too very complicated, money and depression as well as neglect shouldn’t be a main factor as to why is should be looked down upon. Rather, the safety of the child is something that should also be a top propriety. And of course, at any age it is dangerous to have a child. Everyone is different!
-pattie
Truc and Bunmi,
Sorry to start out immediately pushing on you but your starting point is that teen pregnancy can cause “family disruptions”. It looked like, from how you presented it, that the family disruption was not cause by the pregnant teen but the parents. She did not demand they help her support her child, she did not demand they pay medical pills, she didn’t ask for anything, she simply told they that she was pregnant. Doesn’t that seem unethical to you? Throwing your child away just because they’re pregnant?
I know the two of you have heard of the parents that kick their children out of the house just because they are gay? I know you two know of this because I’ve heard you talk about it, highly against the idea of a parent kicking their child out for something that is beyond their control. How is this any different? Most, almost all actually, teen pregnancy’s are not planned. It is beyond their control. So how exactly is that the pregnant teen causing the “family disruption”?
Thanks for listening,
Story