TEENAGE MOTHERS.

In the United States, approximately 1/3 of young women become pregnant in their teenage years. More than 80% of teen pregnancies are unintended and unintentional. Each year, about 1 million teenage girls become pregnant. Regardless of how early or late a young woman is in her teens, there are more risks of birth defects occurring from teenage girls. Teenage girls are less likely to gain the amount of weight needed for the baby to grow healthy. Some causes of teenage pregnancies are sexual behavior, lack of knowledge about contraceptions, age discrepencies in relationships, sexual abuse, dating violence, poverty, to get government money, and the environment in which they were brought up. I went onto http://www.ask.com/ and I asked, "Why do teenage girls get pregnant?" A lot of websites came up about teen pregnancy, but one of them caught my interest the most. Some other reasons why that teenage girls get pregnant are because some girls use pregnancy to rebel against their parents, they are missing love or emotional needs at home and try to get them fulfilled in other ways, lack of control so they use pregnancy to gain control, to keep their boyfriend from leaving, and/or because pregnancy is very strong within their culture. There are many reasons why teenage girls get pregnant, another reason may just be because it was an honest accident, condom might have broke, a girl may have forgotten to take her birth control that day. Most societies do not support teenage pregnancies. It is irresponsible, burdens the lives of other people whom had no help in creating a child, and puts the teenager's life on pause. Despite the obvious cons of teenage pregnancies, just like everything else there are pros. A teenager will learn the true definition of responsibility and discontinue their self-centered ways. They will no longer think about theirself, but care for someone other than themselves. Before the child is born, all the stresses seem difficult and inevitable, but in many cases once the child is born all the stresses seems worth it. Some teenage girls do not intend to get pregnant as others may. If you were a teenager and you accidently get pregnant, what would you do?

THE "PREGNANT MAN"

In April of 2008, there was a woman/man named Thomas Beatie. When I first heard about "him," I thought he was an actual man that magically became pregnant. To my disappointment, I was wrong. Apparently, this "man" was formerly a woman who had surgery to portray herself as a man. I was highly upset about this because everyone made such a big deal about it. HE'S NOT A MAN! HE WAS A WO-MAN! There was an article that I was reading about him from ABC.com and Thomas said he has the right to bear a child. Of course he does, he has woman organs. I understand the controversy of the whole thing because some people think it's kind of demeaning towards the child which may be true. If I found out my father was previously a woman before I wouldn't be surprised, but it would definately be a life turning event. That's besides the point of my argument though. I understand why it was such a big deal, but in my opinion when it came down to it, he is still a she. Besides the big issue, I was just angry because the media kept saying "He is having a baby." Maybe "he" refers to himself as a "he," but "he" is still a she if "he" can have babies. Maybe I'm just ignorant because I refuse to refer her as a him. I don't care whether she wanted to be both, she can call herself a he all she wants, but in my opinion, she can't be a he if she has a baby! (Just a little pet peeve of mine :P )