Teenage Pregnancy

Teenage pregnancy is defined as a teenaged or underaged girl becoming pregnant, the main ages of teenage pregnancy occurance being within the ages 13-19. Another defination is women becoming pregnant before reaching the legal age of adulthood, which varies across the world. It is reported that the UK's rate of pregnancies in females aged 15-19 is the worst in Europe...our Europe!

A underage girl expecting a baby does not necessarily have to be a bad thing. Most of the time it is, though it is quite dependent on the support they are given. If parents are more open to the option of helping their daughter through a rough patch that is pregnancy, and if their peers does not cast them out of their social group for being pregnant and too 'attention drawing', it wouldnt be so bad. However this case is very unlikely. In most cases, the pregnant girl rises a massive row in her family and make a rift in it and she becomes a social outcast in her school.

I'd like to draw on two examples of teenage pregnancies with two major differences in terms of support. One of them being Glee with Quinn, she is deprived of parental support and is even kicked out of her home as well as being a social outcast and lost her position as a cheerleader. The second example being Juno with, well, Juno. Her parents are highly supportive in whatever her decision is and people in her school doesn't seem to mind that she is a huge tennis ball strolling around the corridoors.

Back in the old days, when life expectancy was much much shorter than it is now, people aged 14 would be classified as fully grown adults and would be off working and starting a family (think Brad Pitt in 'The Interview with the Vampire"). So is teenage pregnancy really all that bad? Again, it depends on that amount of support the teenager is given. It is bad if they are given insufficient support from other people, who can be their parents, their friends and peers. And the actual process of underage sex is bad and illegal itself, though it happens alot more often than most people would think.

More information on teenage pregnancy can be found on the links provided below:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7595871.stm

http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters/healthandwellbeing/teenagepregnancy/tpiag/tpiag/