Pregnancy and Poverty: Correlations and Causes by Berit Ericson

                According to the Global Post, between the ages of 15 and 19, 330,000 girls will get pregnant (Global Post). Many of these pregnancies are seen among girls who are living in poverty at the time the child is conceived. Poverty and teen pregnancy are often seen as going hand in hand in the mindset that teenage pregnancy causes poverty. In actuality, poverty is more of a cause of pregnancy than the way that most people see it. Teenage pregnancy rates in poverty-filled neighborhoods are much higher than in middle or upper class areas.

                Teenage pregnancy has been a huge problem in the United States. As a developed country, the United States has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the world (Christian Science). However, the rates of pregnancy have gone down in the United States significantly in the last two decades, almost 40 percent decreased in the years past (Christian Science). There are many reasons why teen pregnancy in poverty is still so high, even though the national average has gone down. Women living in poverty are in despair. They do not have everything that they need and are not able to be fully functioning members of society because they do not have the economic standing to be able to join society in a full manner. “Teens who experience despair are more likely to turn to motherhood as a way to find meaning in a world where they see few other options” (Christian Science).  These women have nothing in their lives as it is. They are looking for a way to feel needed and important. Children can provide that. While they may not necessarily plan to have a child, they may choose to keep it instead of having an abortion so that they have meaning in their lives. Abortions are at a much lower rate in areas of lower economic status than in areas of higher socio-economic status (Christian Science). These women are choosing to keep their children as a way to give them something in their lives that is good and that they can treasure. 

                For families in poverty, sex education is not often considered a priority.  Schools in low socio-economic status neighborhoods do not often have the funding to be able to provide sexual education classes to their students so they are left generally aware of the information that would be beneficial to them in their relationships.  Families with low incomes also generally do not have enough extra funding to provide contraceptives or birth control to their children (Global Post). These adolescents in these families may not have any access at all to birth control or other forms of contraceptives and so practice remedial methods of contraception that oftentimes do not work as intended.  At least half of the students report no birth control being used at all (Global Post). This proves the point that birth control is unavailable to students in low income and social economic status families.

                A lack of sexual education leads to students knowing next to nothing about how their own bodies work. Many of the reported teenage pregnancies occur because adolescents living in poverty are unaware of the fact that they could get pregnant at the time that they had sex. Many girls do not know how their menstrual cycle works or when they are most likely to get pregnant so they guess as to when they can have sex without any risks. Almost 1/3 of adolescents did not think they could get pregnant from having sex when they did (Global Post). These teens did not receive proper sex education and simply did not know what they needed to to be able to take care of themselves and protect themselves.

                There are many factors that affect teenage girls who may become mothers. Teen pregnancy is more likely if the girl’s mother gave birth as a teen, if the parents were not married when the child was born, or if the mother did not graduate or get her GED. These three factors compounded make up a 64% chance for that child to become pregnant. Two of these give a 42% chance, and one factor places that child with a 27% chance of having a child of their own when they are a teenager, in comparison to the 7% chance that a teenager has with none of these factors in play (Global Post). Teenagers who are born to teenage mothers automatically have a much higher chance of having children of their own early in their young lives.

                Many researchers speculate that “the combination of being poor and living in a more unequal society contributes to a low perception of possible economic success, and hence leads to choices that favor short term satisfaction-in this case the decision to have a baby while young and unmarried” (Reality Check). Teenage girls who become pregnant, instead of aborting the baby, choose to have the child to have a small piece of something in their lives to make them happy. Having a child while young and unwed can be seen as a poor decision, but for adolescent girls living in poverty, that child can also be seen as a source of happiness. The child will give them something and someone that is relying on them and will give them someone to live for and fight for.

                There is a way to alleviate the percentage of teenage mothers living in poverty. Even low income schools need to be able to provide sex education programs in their schools. Students living in poverty should not be the ones to suffer from a lack of education, especially not a sexual education. There are things that every adolescent male and female need to know before engaging in sexual activity. These facts and figures need to be made known to prohibit unwanted pregnancies and abortions that take place. Students deserve to know the information about sexual activity, especially about contraceptives. There are many ways and methods to prevent teenage pregnancies, but for students in low social economic status labeled neighborhoods, their schools are not providing this information. Without the knowledge, students are left resorting to methods that are by no means fool proof, and could still easily end in pregnancy.

                Teenage pregnancy rates will decrease with improved economic opportunities, reduced poverty rates, and improved prospects for adult outcomes (Christian Science). These three things are major factors to reducing teenage pregnancies in poverty-stricken areas and also follow hand in hand towards improving lives and living conditions. If teenagers are provided with economic opportunities in their neighbors, whether they have children or otherwise, they will be able to earn a living as a way to better their lives and the lives of their families as well.  The capability to have a job and work for a living will help to reduce the poverty rates in these neighborhoods so that girls born to teenage mothers do not also become teenage mothers later in their lives. This follows as a way to improve adult outcomes. Daughters are not necessarily following in their mothers footsteps and may be able to move away from the path that their family was on in poverty.

                Teenage pregnancy in poverty is not a good thing, at least to the average middle class American citizen. But it is a reality. It is something that people in impoverished neighborhoods are dealing with every day. So many girls have children when they are still in high school. These children are raised in poverty, but are not the cause of that poverty. Their mothers  were already impoverished before they were born. For many of these children, they are to be the third generation born into this kind of despair. Their families are not able to provide for them well, but they are able to love them.  Poverty itself is not caused by teenage pregnancy. Poverty is in place already before the adolescent becomes pregnant or has a child. These two things, poverty and pregnancy, are related, but not the way that people often assume. Pregnancy comes as a result of poverty and something must be done about that.

Works Cited

Hanes, S. (2012, May 22). Teenage pregnancy: High US rates due to poverty, not promiscuity. Retrieved November 16, 2014, from http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Family/Modern-Parenthood/2012/0522/Teenage-pregnancy-High-US-rates-due-to-poverty-not-promiscuity

Ipatenco, S. (n.d.). Why Are Low Income Teens More Likely To Become Pregnant? Retrieved November 16, 2014, from http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/low-income-teens-likely-become-pregnant-12207.html

Kempner, M. (2013, April 29). Poverty Causes Teen Parenting, Not The Other Way Around. Retrieved November 16, 2014, from http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2013/04/29/poverty-causes-teen-parenting-not-the-other-way-around/