This essay is a problem solution essay about teenage pregnacy.

The teenage pregnancy rate for 1997 rose all the way up to 62.7 percent, this was the highest it has been in years! When I first saw this fact I knew something would have to be done about it. This high pregnancy rate in teenagers is in fact a major problem, because teenagers are not responsible enough to raise a baby. There are many possible solutions to prevent teenage pregnancy like discouraging early dating, abstinence, and using birth control and condoms. Although there are all these possible solutions the pregnancy rate is still very high. So we need to evaluate the possible solutions and pick the best one to grow on to help lower the teenage pregnancy rate.

What has caused the teenage pregnancy rate to get so high? One reason for such a high rate is the solutions people suggest that teenagers use to prevent getting pregnant. Society tells teenagers over and over these solutions that are simply unacceptable to most teenagers. Also the lack of information on pregnancy also causes this higher rate, because teenage girls are not informed enough about how hard being pregnant really is. Most teenagers are smart enough to know that if they engage in having sexual intercourse they have the chance of getting pregnant. They do not realize how big of a life altering change having a baby is though.

Possible solutions to help prevent pregnancy are discouraging early dating, abstinence, and using birth control and condoms. Although there are all these solutions not all of them are really reasonable to teenagers. Such as discouraging early dating, the reason this solution does not work is because if a parent tells their teenagers they cannot date they will still do it behind their back. And the reason that abstinence is really not a good solution is because sometime or another a teenager is going to try having sex no matter what their parents tell them. Abstinence is like telling a little kid not to try candy. Teenagers undergo too much peer pressure to avoid having intercourse one time or another through their teenage years. So really the only good solution to help prevent teenage pregnancy is using birth control and condoms. The reason this solution is better than the rest is because it takes away almost all the chance of becoming pregnant there is. Even if the teenager is having intercourse if the girl is taking birth control and if the boy is using condoms there is a very little chance that becoming pregnant is possible.

The way to get more teenagers using birth control and condoms is to inform them about how effective they really are and how well they will work for them if the decide on having sexual intercourse. Birth control is 98 percent effective and so are condoms, so putting the two protections together is highly effective. Teenagers need to know how easily they can become pregnant and they also need to know how hard having a baby would be.

The solutions are not drastic. Discouraging early dating and abstinence are some solutions that are not highly effective and the main solution to help prevent pregnancy is using birth control and condoms as long as we get this solution out to the kids and inform them about these methods of protection. The pregnancy rate in teenagers is much to high so these solutions need to start being carried out so this rate is lowered drastically. Most teenagers really do not understand how big of a life change they will undergo if pregnancy enters their life.