Girl, 11, Gives Birth to Baby Boy

[scandal 951]

Plus today birth control is readily available. What would be the teen birth rate today if contraception was like it was in the 50's? And we also need to factor in the abortion rate. Abortion was not an option for a 50's teen. How would those figures look now?

Abortion was an option - illegal, desperate back-alley abortions with clothes hangers.

Thank goodness we're past those days.

You're absolutely right- effective birth control, sex ed, and access to safe and legal abortion have played a huge role in driving down teenage pregnancy rates.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Abortion was not an option for a 50's teen.

[Marilyn. 340]

I was just reading about abortions back in the day....

# Estimates of the annual number of illegal abortions in the 1950s and 60s range from 200,000 to 1.2 million, even though abortion procedures were unsafe and often life-threatening, in addition to being illegal

# During the 1950s and 60s, each year an estimated 160 to 260 women died from illegal abortions, while thousands more were seriously injured

http://www.now.org/issues/abortion/roe30/beforeafter.html

Abortion was not a crime and was quite common in the U.S. during the 1700s and early 1800s. During this period, primitive methods such as physically striking a pregnant woman's abdomen or introducing foreign objects into the uterus were used to induce abortion, frequently killing or injuring the woman

Edited February 16, 2010 by Marilyn.

[Ali G. 37]

You're absolutely right- effective birth control, sex ed, and access to safe and legal abortion have played a huge role in driving down teenage pregnancy rates.

So why are they heading up again? In particular, now with the internet where information is readily available discussing the true cost of raising a child. If an 11 year old is old enough to have a child, surely they are old enough to use google.

Here I will even help such children out, since their parents are unable to do so. http://www.babycenter.com/cost-of-raising-child-calculator

Edited February 16, 2010 by Booyah

[spookyturtle 9,466]

So why are they heading up again? In particular, now with the internet where information is readily available discussing the true cost of raising a child. If an 11 year old is old enough to have a child, surely they are old enough to use google.

Obviously an 11 year old isn't mature enough to have a child. Hell, a lot of people in their 20's and 30's don't seem to be mature enough to raise a child.

[Ali G. 37]

I was just reading about abortions back in the day....

The other thing you and others forget Marilyn is that the odds are greatly stacked against this baby; actually against both children.

Hence: Teen mothers start parenthood with few viable economic skills. Forty-one percent of mothers under 18 finish high school, compared to 61% of 20- to 21-year-old first mothers. A scant 1.5% of teen mothers earn a college degree by age 30.1

Edited February 16, 2010 by Booyah

[Marilyn. 340]

So why are they heading up again? In particular, now with the internet where information is readily available discussing the true cost of raising a child. If an 11 year old is old enough to have a child, surely they are old enough to use google.

Here I will even help such children out, since their parents are unable to do so. http://www.babycenter.com/cost-of-raising-child-calculator

I was reading and some people are saying it is because of the increase of Abstinence only programs

[Ali G. 37]

I was reading and some people are saying it is because of the increase of Abstinence only programs

Too bad they don't teach that at 11. Interesting that no information has been released regarding the father.

The parents of this child should be investigated for neglect.

Edited February 16, 2010 by Booyah

[Marilyn. 340]

Too bad they don't teach that at 11.

I don't think you get it...lol people noticed the teen birth rate started increasing around the same time they started introducing more abstinence only programs

[Ali G. 37]

I don't think you get it...lol people noticed the teen birth rate started increasing around the same time they started introducing more abstinence only programs

You must have missed the recent research posted here in VJ, that seems to suggest otherwise about abstinence programs.

I also found for you that: Teen mothers are mostly single parents. Eighty percent of fathers do not marry mothers and pay less than $800 annually in child support, important income for poor children.

Children living apart from fathers are five times more likely to be poor than children from two-parent homes. Children of uninvolved fathers are twice as likely to drop out of school, abuse alcohol or drugs or go to jail, and four times more likely to need help for emotional or behavioral problems.

Also keep in mind that this is talking about teen parents, as in 14 to 18, not some 11 year old. That thought that anyone would justified this with either '###### happens' or discredit its significance because 'it happened before' is just ridiculous on any level.

Edited February 16, 2010 by Booyah

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

You must have missed the recent research posted here in VJ, that seems to suggest otherwise about abstinence programs.

I also found for you that: Teen mothers are mostly single parents. Eighty percent of fathers do not marry mothers and pay less than $800 annually in child support, important income for poor children.

Children living apart from fathers are five times more likely to be poor than children from two-parent homes. Children of uninvolved fathers are twice as likely to drop out of school, abuse alcohol or drugs or go to jail, and four times more likely to need help for emotional or behavioral problems.

Also keep in mind that this is talking about teen parents, as in 14 to 18, not some 11 year old. That thought that anyone would justified this with either '###### happens' or discredit its significance because 'it happened before' is just ridiculous on any level.

Why is it ridiculous? What is the precise significance of this story?

I certainly agree with you that having a child at the age of 11 isn't exactly the ideal situation, to say the least. But so what?

Is this one of those stories where because you see a handful of headlines that there's some major epidemic going on? Suddenly its happening the length and breadth of the country!? Sheesh man, take a bloody chill pill. $hit does indeed happen. The sooner you realize it and accept it, the happier you'll be - instead of moaning about how a bloody news headline is proof positive that the sky is falling.

[GabiandVi 34]

I was reading and some people are saying it is because of the increase of Abstinence only programs

The people who are saying that want to believe it, but it is not true. Most children who are getting pregnant know more about how to get pregnant than many adults. They also have access to birth control, usually for free. They know how to get it without their parents knowing about it, but in most cases, their parents would promote the use of it anyway. These kids either want to get pregnant, or want to take the chance. I deal with these kids every day. Eleven is very young, but except for the age, there is nothing shocking here. This is par for the course among young girls around here, and if you look at statistics, areas such as mine and demographics such as what I'm referring to are where the increase in teen pregnancies is occuring. These kids NEVER considered abstinence. NEVER.

They talk openly about sex. They talk about getting pregnant. They talk about trying until they finally do get pregnant, and if they miscarry, they try again. The boys brag about how many children they have fathered. The girls with some small hope for a future talk about not having children until they are older. This is real life I'm talking about. This is what I observe EVERY day at school.

Abstinence only doesn't work, but not because it leads to pregnancy. It doesn't work because the children who are going to get pregnant wouldn't consider it in the first place. But neither does any other sort of program that has been tried. This is systemic, and it won't be fixed until we fix the problem that underlies it, and no one wants to even begin talking about that because it is politically incorrect.

[Niels Bohr 72]

I highly doubt that. I know a small 14 year old girl who got pregnant. Her school didn't teach her about any sex-ed. Don't forget when teens reach the age of puberty, they are wild.

[GabiandVi 34]

I highly doubt that. I know a small 14 year old girl who got pregnant. Her school didn't teach her about any sex-ed. Don't forget when teens reach the age of puberty, they are wild.

I don't consider 14 that small. That's 9th grade. How ignorant of sex were you in 9th grade? I was not taught sex ed until I was in 12th grade, but I knew how a person got pregnant by the time I was in 5th grade, a full year before I reached puberty. Admittedly, in the 3rd grade I thought you got pregnant if you kissed a boy, but by the end of 5th grade, I had it all sussed out, and I was about as sheltered as it gets in the US.

Anyway, I'm not talking about the rare circumstance where a child gets pregnant accidentally because she didn't know you could get pregnant the first time, etc., (and sex ed would not correct those sorts of misconceptions in the same way you can teach an entire unit on Greece, for example, and still have students not be able to find it on a map - those sorts of children need one-on-one education, i.e. parent involvement) I'm talking about the majority of sexually active teenagers. They are aware of what they are doing and how to prevent pregnancy, with or without sex ed. They know how to get birth control, but they choose not to. Either they want to get pregnant, or they want to take the chance, or in the same way that they don't think they can die if they drive drunk, they don't think it is going to happen to them if they don't use protection.

Have you asked this 14 year old if she didn't know she could get pregnant?

[Niels Bohr 72]

So, how did she know about sex? and prenancy? What's making her have a baby?

I don't consider 14 that small. That's 9th grade. How ignorant of sex were you in 9th grade? I was not taught sex ed until I was in 12th grade, but I knew how a person got pregnant by the time I was in 5th grade, a full year before I reached puberty. Admittedly, in the 3rd grade I thought you got pregnant if you kissed a boy, but by the end of 5th grade, I had it all sussed out, and I was about as sheltered as it gets in the US.

Anyway, I'm not talking about the rare circumstance where a child gets pregnant accidentally because she didn't know you could get pregnant the first time, etc., (and sex ed would not correct those sorts of misconceptions in the same way you can teach an entire unit on Greece, for example, and still have students not be able to find it on a map - those sorts of children need one-on-one education, i.e. parent involvement) I'm talking about the majority of sexually active teenagers. They are aware of what they are doing and how to prevent pregnancy, with or without sex ed. They know how to get birth control, but they choose not to. Either they want to get pregnant, or they want to take the chance, or in the same way that they don't think they can die if they drive drunk, they don't think it is going to happen to them if they don't use protection.

Have you asked this 14 year old if she didn't know she could get pregnant?

Edited February 16, 2010 by Niels Bohr