Here are some facts about teen pregnancy for your consideration.

The fact sheets from the well-respected National Campaign To Prevent Teen Pregnancy describe a bleak prospect: Even controlling for social and economic backgrounds, only 40 percent of teenage girls who bear children before age 18 go on to graduate from high school, compared with the 75 percent of teens who do not give birth until ages 20 or 21. Less than 2 percent of mothers who have children before age 18 will earn a college degree by age 30, compared with 9 percent of young women who wait until age 20 or 21 to have children.

Overall, teenage mothers—and their children—are also far more likely to live in poverty than females who don't give birth until after age 20. Two-thirds of the families begun by a young unmarried mother are poor. These families are more likely to be on welfare and to require publicly provided health care. Eighty percent of these young mothers do not marry, and they will get almost no support from the fathers, who are usually also poor.

The National Center for Health Statistics reports that even if teen mothers do marry, the odds they will divorce are vastly higher than among other populations. On his MySpace page, since removed from the Internet, Palin's soon-to-be husband, Levi Johnston, describes himself as a "f****n' redneck" and reveals: "I live to play hockey. I like to go camping and hang out with the boys, do some fishing." That may illuminate why, after 10 years, 48 percent of marriages by brides under 18 have ended. Only 24 percent of brides married at age 25 or older are so fated. Right or wrong, the data show there is such a thing as "too young."

Also, using seven months as a marker for a premarital pregnancy, having a baby within the first seven months of marriage raises the odds of divorce in every ethnic group. Black and Hispanic couples who marry when pregnant are twice as likely to divorce as couples who marry when the bride is not pregnant; non-Hispanic whites are 50 percent more likely to divorce if the bride is pregnant than if they marry before conception. When polled, male teenagers are less supportive of having babies outside of marriage than female teens are. In the one part of the MySpace site about children, prospective father Levi Johnston wrote, "I don't want kids."

Statistically, the children of teen mothers aren't all that well-off, either. More of their mothers smoke. The babies are more likely to be smaller at birth, suffer higher rates of abuse and neglect, and do poorly in school. They are also likelier to go to prison and to have teen pregnancies themselves, to stay back a grade, to be involved in violence, to go to foster care.

im a former teen mother, i had my daughter at 19 and she is also a former teen mother my daughter had her son at 14 2months before she turn 15 and she had her 2nd at 17 she had her daughter the day before she graduated and she graduated 1yr early she 25 now with 3 kids and also is going through a divorce... she working 40plus hours a week and she doing it

I think you have both proven a point.

just remember
DO NOT
caterogize ALL teen mothers under this
some of us DO NOT fall into the post and NEVER had these problems
and with that being said im outty!

I never said, and the numbers in the article do not indicate, all teen mothers are failures or burdens to society.

I didn't and the numbers do not categorize all teen mothers as the same.

There is overwhelming evidence that becoming a teen mother makes life much harder, limits the economic and educational opportunities of all parties involve, contributes to higher numbers of children in foster care and to the prison population and those are just some of the obvious problems that arise from teen pregnancy.

my family is very fertile. from my grandma to my mother to my aunts to my cousins to me.
IM assuming my daughter will be too!!


we started young, all of us, and got lots of babies in the family.

nothing wrong with babies and nope I WOULD never consider a baby a burden.

and life is hard regardless of being a teen mother.

but then through the generations in my family...we hope to teach the youngsters valuable lessons.
even if we are stupid or ignorant. LMAO
sterotype away, thats ignorant in its self

I did not stereotype teen mothers.

I simply provided information, facts from reliable sources not anecdotal evidence of the success or failure of individual teen parents, that clearly shows teen pregnancy causes extra burdens to all involved.

Had I said,"teen mothers are stupid, immoral and lazy" then I would have been guilty of stereotyping teen mothers. I did not.

Teen parents who work to support their children financially, emotionally and educationally I would guess might have to work harder than those who become first time parents after securing their own education, employment and home.

I take my hat off to those people who make a success of teen parenthood but the facts show those success are the exception not the rule.

A baby who is wanted, cared for and nurtured is not a burden. One who is not and ends up in foster care or in prison is a burden to society as a whole.

okay dokey!!

i guess with that kinda viewpoint..
senior citizens are also a burden


logging off now.
no further comments!

All she is trying to say is that teen mothers have it harder than those that are mothers in their 20's. This should be common sense. There are disadvantages to having children before you are settled in with a job and significant other. At no point did she mention that teen moms are no good low lifes, nor did she mention that teen moms just drain society.

All she was doing was trying to enforce knowledge we already had, that it is best for you and your child, if the would-be mother can wait until she is ready to take on her own life, and someone elses both financially and emotionally. Sometimes, we all know, pregnancies can go unplanned. Those are the cases we should try to avoid, if possible. I don't see too many 15 year olds sitting around planning about how nice it would be to have a child right now. If they do, than great. Doesn't mean they aren't in for a struggle.

Lets not attack anyone on here. The story wasn't a slam against teen pregnancy. It was just supposed to be education for the masses.

wow.
1) it was a slam against palins' daughter
2) it was attacking teen mothers and their children
>>>calling children a burden on society

please lady dont attack the poor, the young or even the sick or old. the got enough to deal with.
after all the odds ya know.

Where did you come up with that. Must have read something different than I did...With the US 24th in Infant mortality rate they come into the world fighting the odds. So much for the US having the best Health care in the world..Well maybe a select few that can afford it!!!!!!

teen pregnancy is not newsworthy.

it only defeats the purpose when the news continues to broadcast teen pregnancy like its the latest greatest thing.

this is a topic for parenting..not politics.

let me buy you a drink

It boggles my mind that anyone could read what I posted and take away from it only one thing to say in reply. That I called babies a burden.

Teen pregnancy is not newsworthy?

Please, take a couple classes. I'd suggest government, economics, and criminal justice to start.

Visit some prisons and foster care homes.

Read statistics on birth weights, infant mortality and child abuse. Follow that up with studies that show how many children in the United States are malnourished, uninsured and who drop out of school.

These children, if they are very lucky, become adults. Adults without good health and at least basic a basic education are at risk of becoming a burden to society.

If the odds stacked against teen parents and their children don't alarm you then I am not sure what else to say.

Maybe if there was a focus on famiy values and morals there would be less teen pregnancy. When Bill cosby talks about it he gets harassed. If more people would listen to what he says instead of thinking he is putting them down I believe we could get a better handle on the issue.

I agree!...TJ

Well i gotta say, i know some women, who had kids in their 30's, and screwed up big time with their kids! so i think its more about the individual than the age.

I was a teen mum, i had my first son 2 months before my 19th birthday, and im not ashamed of it either.

I HAD been working since i was young, and had been in my job at the time for 2yrs. I was in wat i thought was a secure relationship. Altho my relationship only lasted 9yrs, i was a single parent for 9yrs on my own after it. I dont think i done/do a bad job.

Ive always been of the same opinion, it doesnt matter when u have ur kids, eitherway, ur sacrificing summit.

As a teen, ur sacrificing a part of ur youth, as an older parent, ur sacrificing ur career....

No matter wat age, ppl can either do it well or screw up.

Why is it only negative statistics are shown? Are there any stats on how well children do when they have a loving family to support them and help them through the hard times?

I'm a father of 2. divorced after 8 years of marriage does that mean I have no chace of having a fullfilling life and my children have no chance to make something of themselves?

Lmao, if you think it means that for you well I've been divorced for 17 years with 2 kids what does that say for me.

Ohh by the way mine are grown and yes my son and his g/f had a little girl by the time they were 18. Not only have they taken responsibility and taken care of her. Not ever having to go on the system due to other family members helping out including myself they lived with me for 2 years. Yes they are no longer together but......Kaitlynn comes first. And I have never regretted having a loving grand daughter come into my life.

In the first place this Topic started off about Teen pregnancy. Then with a sly part of paste and copy had to throw in what Paline's daughter's b/f said on his myspace. Humm not sure who has kids here and which ones have myspace. But some should look at them before they point fingers. All this just to tear another down for their actions. I can't say that no one in this life is without fault in what we did when we were young nor as we got older. By the words we spew out at times and then regret later.

This is a typical 17 year old boy with a myspace that the News Median wants to hash apart just for a bit of news.

Shshs there are millions of 17 year olds with the same attitude. The kid was just saying what he felt which is not always the way we want things to come across.

Teen pregnancy is not something new this has been going on for 100's of years. Kids that are born to teeagers are not always the ones on the system nor abused or neglected. There are plenty of them that are well taken care of for other family members step in.

I have seen older couples that fall to take care of their kids while the younger ones were struggling to try to do the best they could.

Which would others want them to do have the child or abort them? At least they took the responsibility and bucked up for their mistakes and made the best of it that they could.

Instead of always finding fault with what a teenager does maybe just maybe if we put more effort into teaching instead of putting them down. And show them a little more compassion for the ones that are successful we would be able to make others see to take all precautions out there. But that when that don't work then to step forward and do the best they can with the situation in hand.