TEEN PREGNANCY AND SOCIAL WELFARE

Just a few years ago it seems, there was enormous social pressure for people to get married and have families within this marital framework -- this was really the only socially acceptable way to raise a family in the United States. However, things have changed and today, America continues to have the highest rates of teen pregnancy and births in the Western industrialized world. In fact, 40 percent of all girls in the United States become pregnant before their twentieth birthday, and one out of every five goes on to become a teen mother. “The overwhelming majority of these young mothers are unmarried and end up poor and on welfare” (Sawhill, 2000, 1). While the pundits debate on the best way to educate young people about the risks associated with these early pregnancies, tens of thousands of babies in the United States will continue to suffer from the physical and emotional problems associated with early teen pregnancies and the social welfare system appears to be contributing to this phenomenon. Some critics point out that social welfare programs ignore the real needs of teens for sex education and birth control in favor of pe...