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Imagine your daughter and her seven friends came over and you knew that one of them would definitely be pregnant. If your daughter went to Robeson High School in Chicago, this would be the case: of 800 girls, 115 of them are pregnant or have had a child. The one in seven rate is astounding, and there are hundreds of factors that may contribute to the school's pregnancy numbers.
These factors include a lack of access to sexual health education and pregnancy prevention and a lack of access to reproductive health resources. The school's students are largely from poor communities of color where teenage pregnancies can be high. The Principal of Robeson adds that absentee fathers may also be a factor.
At least Robeson is a school in which young women are not being thrown out or transferred to other schools. Principal Morrow notes, "We're looking at how we can get them to the next phase, how can we still get them thinking about graduation?"
So often we may be quick to blame or judge the pregnant girls in the situation, their parents, or other individuals. But Robeson's numbers are a product of a much larger institutional problem - poor reproductive health education in low-income communities. Educational classes and centers need to be set up that normalize and encourage the use of birth control methods and distribute condoms. A teen health center is being built across the street, which is a step in the right direction. But funding needs to be poured into the creation and maintenance of centers such as these so that teenage pregnancy rates go down. The health of young women of color need to be addressed directly so that they aren't struggling to raise children or give birth while trying to graduate from high school.
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You have no idea whether these women had multiple sexual partners or just had sex with one or two people and happened to get pregnant. If we had a more sexually educated population, maybe these women no matter how many partners they may have had, can be safe and express their sexuality. Alongside this, while some women may be ruining their lives by having a child this age, some women can bounce back from the early setback and still lead fulfilling lives. I am not condoning the problem, but every teen whose gotten pregnant isn't a whore and should not be treated as such, and every women who has a child as a teen has not ruined everything.
January 4, 2010 - 10:33amThis Comment
to me your a whore if your so self centered that you have sex before marriage so yes they are whores no matter how many partners they've had and if your going to act like something be prepared to be treated like it. If you act like a respectiable person then you will be treated as such, but they aren't. These teens are ruining our future since children are our future and they are ruining their lives before they even begin. These girls decided to act like whores and they are getting treated like it as they should.
January 14, 2010 - 9:47pmThis Comment
Don't we, at this very moment have President of color who was born to a woman whose husband abandoned her causing her to abandon her child to be raised by his grandmother? Hmmm...sounds like a ruined life to me!!
January 25, 2010 - 9:50pmThis Comment
::edit:: you're, not your
January 15, 2010 - 10:52amrespectable, not respectiable
Self-centered? How is having sex self-centered? If anything, these women may have been experiencing their first real relationship, their first semblance of falling "in love" with someone and wanted to share that physically. Have you ever had sex? Did you have sex before you were married or engage in any sexual activity? If you and your partner decided to just hold hands and kiss on the cheek until a legal document bound your tax dollars and hospital visitation together great, but don't berate these women to the status of a streetwalker because you may have not fully become aware and ok with your own sexual expression. Marriage is not the end-all expression of love and devotion for someone, or commitment to the relationship, or a "respectable" outlet for everyone. From the way the article presented the information too, it looks like these "whores" are getting treated as they should: being pushed to continue their education after the child is born and having the principal give them access to birth control.
This Comment
or they could ya know get a job and support and raise their children? Maybe? Does that sound good to anyone? Being in school isn't going to give them money to provide for their children.
January 25, 2010 - 7:27pmThis Comment
I'm sure that minimum wage job that isn't there because of the recession and no high school diploma would be great to raise a child. They should at least be getting a high school diploma before entering into the dismal job market, and there's certainly no way these women could support a child with that education level without working 3 jobs. There are only 24 hours in a day...unfortunately.
January 26, 2010 - 11:11amThis Comment
Well then they better start looking for those 3 jobs. They got pregnant it's they're own fault, now they have to pay for it. Literally.
January 31, 2010 - 11:20amThis Comment
I want to point out one thing. While lack of sex education is certainly a major factor, as well as all the reason cited in this post, there are other factors. I know a young woman, who had very little support from her family, an absentee father, little income of her own despite the fact that she works hard at a steady job, a high school education. She was also raped as a young girl. She was well aware of the risks and consequences of unprotected sex. She wanted very much to have a child. Because she wanted someone to love her, unconditionally. Because this was something she had never had, from her family or from the men in her life. She has a daughter now, and she loves that little girl very much and as far as I can tell, she is a wonderful devoted mother. For your consideration, is it possible that some of these girls wanted to be mothers for the same reason? I am not judging whether that young woman did a good thing or a bad thing... I'm just saying, if children were happy being children, they might not be in such a hurry to grow up.
December 21, 2009 - 4:09pmThis Comment
I wouldn't judge these girls at all. I hope the fathers help out.
December 20, 2009 - 3:23amThis Comment
Why is there so much blame put on these girls and how "stupid" they are, but nobody has mentioned the boys who got them pregnant? Shouldn't they have to take just as much responsibility for this?
December 12, 2009 - 8:26pmThis Comment