To give her body a break she stopped her contraceptive pills, the morning after pill did not work and so she ‘fell’ pregnant at the age of fifteen. This unplanned pregnancy was a blow to a life, which never saw a childhood. While she should have been pursuing her education, she is forced to take care of a baby and face the malice of society. If she had had the benefit of ‘The Nurse Family Partnership scheme’, a nurse would have visited her at least once a week.
In England, approximately 39,000 girls under 18 become pregnant every year, of who half have abortions. In affluent areas, research shows that three-quarters of teenage pregnancies are terminated, as opposed to less than one-fifth in poor neighborhoods. UK has the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in Europe. Having kids at teenage is not good for their bodies, or their babies. Indeed, the babies of young mothers are 60% more likely to die at birth. However, I believe once they are pregnant the choice is theirs to make.
The dismissal stigma of teen pregnancies has kept back-street abortionists in business. Teenage mothers are today assumed freeloading grants and council flats, harming their own prospects and blighting the lives of their children born into an unbreakable cycle of deprivation. Why do we talk of them with hushed, offensive words? Is it the age of these mothers we object to, or their sexual habits, their boyfriends, or their welfare-dependent lifestyles?
Teenage pregnancies cost the NHS £63m, and if a young mother isn’t in work or training for the first three years of her child’s life, she will cost £19,000-25,000, the government estimates, apart from housing benefits, for which no figures are published. Yet as fertility rates go down, just as middle-aged maternity is catching on with in vitro fertilization, and frozen eggs, their costs would probably end up to be more than this.
Come on give them a break! Somewhere society itself is responsible for the situation. Where after all does it all start? The lack of sex education seems to be one reason, poor, lax, addicted parents seems to be the other. While girls from richer families might undergo terminations, these girls have the courage to go ahead with childbirth. While the worries in their head are only about babies, other teenage girls are self-absorbed, stressing about skinny jeans and boyfriends. This might be the wake up call in their lives, pushing them to excel and make a better live as they care for a younger one. I am not asking all teenage girls out there to get pregnant, rather I want you all to feel empathy for those teens out there who are mums, instead of judging them contemptuously!
Source: Timesonline
