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ZEBRA FEATURE
Unexpected Pregnancies Challenge Young Girls
By Dionne Muhammad
Michelle (not her real name) was
scared after finding out she was going
to become a mother. At age 12, she was
in middle school, a child herself. That
was nearly three years ago. Now, just a
few months shy of her 15th birthday,
Michelle is pregnant again-for the third
time.
“I became sexually active when I
was eleven,” she began. Her first preg
nancy ended in an abortion. She paid
for it with money she saved from her
allowance. The following year she gave
birth to a baby boy, she named him
Joseph. “I kept him for four months
before deciding to have him placed in a
foster home,” she said trying to hold
back tears. “I think about him every
day... I knew I didn’t have the money to
take care of him,” she said. A wealthy
Black Atlanta couple became Joseph’s
foster parents.
Still not sure whether she is going to
carry this baby to term, Michelle is
certain of one thing: “I can't handle
being a mother at this age.”
According to a recently released
study from the National Center for
Health Statistics (NCHS), the number
of teen-agers giving birth in the United
States has seen a dramatic drop. The
study showed rates dropping in every
state and across all races. Birth rates for
Black teens fell 21 percent, but remain
double the birth rate of white teens, the
study found.
“Although these findings are encour
aging we clearly need to do more to
reduce teen pregnancy,” said Sonya
Green, public outreach director for the
Georgia Campaign for Adolescent
Preg-nancy Prevention (G-CAPP).
Teen pregnancy in America is still
higher than any other western industri
alized country. Each year approxi
mately one million pregnancies occur
among American teenagers 15-19
years, and about 200,000 teenagers 17
years and younger have children. Their
babies are often low birth-weight and
have disproportionately high infant
mortality rates. They are also far more
likely to be poor. About 80 percent of
the children born to unmarried
teenagers who dropped out of high
school are poor, studies show.
“Trying to prevent teen pregnancy is
a complex and controversial issue,
whether it’s done by teaching preven
tion or preaching abstinence,” said Je-
mea Smith of the Center for Black
Women's Wellness. “We stress absti
nence. But 89 percent of youth we sur
veyed become sexually active by age
17, some of them starting as early as
10-years-old... so we have to teach pre
vention as well. They need to be edu
cated about protecting themselves if
they decide to have sex,” Ms. Smith
said.
Michelle says she knows about every
type of birth control and where to get it.
She’s heard the argument for and
against premarital sex. She knows that
Depo Provera, which is taken as an
injection every few months, is popular
because there are no tell-tale packets of
pills for a mother to find in the bureau
drawer.
“1 still got pregnant even though I
wrote a research paper on prevention
when I was in middle school. I don’t
think people realize that teenagers have
feelings,” Michelle said.
She blames peer pressure for a lot of
the issues teens face. “There is a lot of
pressure in school. You have to be pop
ular... wear the right clothes... have a
cute boyfriend... And there is pressure
to have sex... it’s an emotional time,”
Michelle said.
Studies show girls maturing physi
cally earlier than they did in the past
and both genders are exposed to more
information-and misinformation-at an
earlier age. Magazines, radio and televi
sion titillate with sexual topics often
discussed or shown in graphic detail,
researchers feel.
“Music has a powerful influence on
teenagers and many ways is responsible
for their behavior. Not only are children
listening to the music... They try to
emulate the lifestyles of the artists or
the drama discussed in the lyrics.”
Young girls in relationships with
older men is another disturbing factor to
the teen pregnancy dilemma. Reports
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VOLUME 5 ISSUE 25
