Historical Context
Teen pregnancy what? That’s impossible. Teens Have ALWAYS been getting pregnant. Teen pregnancy emerged as an issue around the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. Teen pregnancy occurs in every race. According to data from the national survey of adolescents “about 77 percent of teen pregnancies are unplanned… unwanted or occurred ‘too soon”.[1] During the 1960’s the sexual revolution was going on. The sexual revolution gave the right to have sex, which caused high rates of pregnancy including teen pregnancy during the 1960’s. The rates during 1960’s were “116.9 per 1,000 individuals.” [2] In the mid 1960's the first oral contraceptive was introduced. According to the Guttmacher Institute’s report on “U.S. Teenage Pregnancies, Births and Abortions, 2010,” "The pregnancy rate decreased by 15% among teenagers aged 15–19 and by 12% among 20–24-year-olds due to contraception pill." [3] With time teen pregnancy rates have declined with the variety of contraception methods.
[1] osher, W. D., Jones, J., Abma, J.C. (2012). Iintended and unintended births in the United States: 19822010.National Center for Health Statistics. Vital Health Stat (55). Retrieved January 23, 2015, from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr055.pdf.
[2] Brinkerhoff, N. (2012, February 11). Teen Pregnancy Rate Lowest in At Least 90 Years. Retrieved April 20, 2015, from http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/teen-pregnancy-rate-lowest-in-at-least-90-years?news=844016
[3] Kost, K., & Henshaw, S. (2014). U.S. teenage pregnancies, births and abortions, 2010: National trends by age, race and ethnicity:Guttmacher Institute. Retrieved January 23, 2015 from http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/USTPtrends10.pdf