There are many ways that society tries to prevent to adolescent pregnancy. They use sex education classes to educate the adolescent and then try to make contraception more readily available to them. This could be why the rate of adolescent pregnancy has gone down in the United States.
The first way that society tries to prevent adolescent pregnancy is by educating adolescents about sexual health and contraception. The first type is the type of class that teaches that the only way not to get pregnant is through strict abstinence. The second type of class that is used is the type of class that teaches abstinence combined with information about the various types of contraception that is out there. This type of class usually teaches that the sure way not to get pregnant is through abstinence, but if you are going to have sex then use contraception. The third way that an adolescent is educated about sex and contraception is either by their parents or by their physicians.
The two different sexual education classes have their differences and have been long debated as to which one is better. The only way that the abstinence only class would work is if the students in the class stayed abstinent and did not have sex because they believed that they would either get pregnant or get a disease. As we know now, adolescents are more than likely to have sex than ever before. This means that teaching abstinence alongside with the knowledge of contraception is the way to go. This kind of class should be start at an early age, look at topics that affect the sexual health of students, and should discuss the use of and how to obtain contraceptives. By using this type of sexual education class, a student gets a well rounded view.
The main advantage of not having a teacher, but a parent or physician teach an adolescent about sexual health and contraception is that the meeting could be held in private and it can be individualized. The reason that parents should educate their adolescent is because it brings their child closer to them and it gets the child to trust that they could discuss anything with their parents. A physician, on the other hand, would be able to obtain knowledge that an adolescent would not to tell their parent. A physician is seen as a health professional and not someone that is going to punish a teenager for having or thinking about sex. They are there to provide information that is best for their patient’s health. This would include giving an adolescent contraceptives and knowledge about contraceptive use.
Education about contraceptive is of no use if an adolescent can not get it. This is why society is now starting to increase the availability of contraception to adolescents. By increasing the knowledge level of the children there is an increase in the use of contraceptive, which in turn, would lead to a decrease in adolescent pregnancy.
As we have ventured through the topic of adolescent pregnancy, we have seen how society sees it and how they propose to lower the rate of these kinds of pregnancies. This is important to focus on as cities start to become overcrowded and as the average starting age of sexual experiences lowers. The time when adolescents stop having unwanted pregnancies is near, because knowledge is power and by reading this one more person knows.
© Jonathan Vail 2009
