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__ Teen Pregnancy __

**__ Introduction __**
It may seem like everyone is doing it. But the truth is, they’re not. Teen pregnancy is 100% preventable. The best way to be absolutely sure you will not get pregnant is to abstain from sex. The next best thing after not having sex, is protected sex. But you can’t just be protected some of the time, it has to be every, single time. I am going to tell you about education rates if you’re a pregnant teen, how you can prevent getting pregnant, and some interesting facts about teenage pregnancy.

__ Teen Pregnancy & Education __
Only one third of teenage mothers earn their high school diploma (Parrish). Not the best odds huh? Parenthood is the leading cause of school dropout among teenage girls (Hofferth). So why not just wait? Get your education, get your life together, get a stable job, and find the right one. Odds are, if you end up having a baby while you’re a teenager, the father most likely will not stick around. What would be the point of going through all this so young, and wasting your teenage years, when you could just wait? Only 1.5% of pregnant teens earn their college degree by age 30 (Parrish). So right there lets you know, that not even just your education can be in trouble, but also the rest of your life. Nowadays you need a college degree to be stable in life, and not have to worry about finances all the time.

__ Preventing Teen Pregnancy: It's Not That Hard __
Like I said, Pregnancy is easily prevented. If you are going to be sexually active, then you have to try your hardest, and do whatever you can not to get pregnant. The two most popular ways would be birth control, and condoms. A couple who has sex without using condoms or any other kind of contraception (birth control) has an 85% chance of getting pregnant within a year ("Stay Teen")? Basically contraceptives fall in to one of two categories; hormonal, and barriers. Hormonal contraceptives are basically methods that release specific amounts of hormones. This prevents women from ovulating (“Stay Teen”). The barrier method acts as a wall to keep the sperm from reaching the egg, and can also protect against STI’s (“It’s Your Sex Life”).

__ Interesting Facts About Teen Pregnancy __
There are many very interesting statistics about teenage pregnancy. Did you know every 61 seconds a new baby is born to a teenage mother (“My Child Source”)? That’s more than I would ever think of. Over 1 year, teenage pregnancies cost the nation about $7 billion (“My Child Source”). That’s a ridiculous amount of money, when it could be so easily prevented by just staying abstinent. Teenage pregnancies usually carry on through the family. 82% of teenage moms were also born to other teenage mothers (“My Child Source”). You can be the one to break the cycle in your family. Teenage parents tend to be less able to socialize and educate their children, which often leads to repetition of the cycle (“My Child Source”).

__ Conclusion __
Hopefully giving you all these reasons have made you realize that having sex is absolutely not worth it at all at this young of an age. It can affect your education, and many different things. Always remember that you CAN prevent it. The only way that you can be completely 100% sure is to abstain from it. If you actually think about it though, there are more people who are not doing it, than people who actually are doing it.

Who Are Teens Most Influences By When It Comes To Decisions About Sex?

__** Works Cited **__ Hofferth, Joseph. "Teen Pregnancy." NCES. IES, 2010. Web. 4 Apr 2012. []. Parrish, Sarah. "Facts About Teen Pregnancy." Do Something. PBS, 2010. Web. 4 Apr 2012. []. "Prevent Teen Pregnancy." The National Campaign. N.p., 2012. Web. 31 May 2012. []. "Stay Informed." Stay Teen. MTV, 2012. Web. 18 Apr 2012. []. " Teenage Pregnancy Facts." My Child Source. PTT, 2012. Web. 4 Apr 2012. [|http://teenmom.tripod.com/id7.html].