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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.
Add a Comment128 Comments
Ignorance is bliss! OH wait no it isn't its a baby!
October 29, 2009 - 9:53amThis Comment
...and, as we all know, the worst thing a person can do is have children!
This argument makes it sound as though having children is horrible. It ends your ability to live. It snuffs your freedom like a candle. I, for one, do not think that this is the truth. I have achieved great things since having my children. I've traveled to three continents. I've gotten two university degrees. I've developed my passion for photography. All of this in the 9 years since my first son was born. I am married to a woman who already had a child from a former relationship that went bad. I have accepted her as part of my family, too, so even though my darling wife - my dream woman - had a child out of wedlock (I know, for shame! hehe) she has managed to find a good man who shows her and her child love and devotion. She has also completed a second Master's Degree and has risen in local politics, both after having children.
October 30, 2009 - 7:00amThat these girls are getting pregnant is not the root problem. The problem is that they are probably not aware of the risks they face in terms of their own health and well-being and that of their baby. It is hard to raise a child and even more so to do it alone. Not everyone can do it well. Unfortunately, the fathers of teen-born babies usually do not take part in the upbringing of the child.
This Comment
um newflash being pregnant in high school is completly different than being how old and a guy in case you hadnt noticed
January 14, 2010 - 9:41pmThis Comment
fyi when ur in high school it does wake up and smell the coffee
January 14, 2010 - 9:39pmThis Comment
It is obvious to me that holes in parental structure lead to children not understanding how the real world works. I can say from experience that when I went to college I had a really rude awakening, realizing what the real world is really like. A lot of my fellow high school graduates immediately popped out babies when the graduated, they were scared and didn't know what else to do with their life. They also used their children as an escape and a way to live through another childhood (even if its not their own)
October 27, 2009 - 8:11pmThis Comment
This author's understanding of statistics needs to be improved. "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." A randomly selected group of 8 girls from this school would yield a lack of pregnancies ~29% of the time. Granted, friend groups will probably not be random, but I think this would increase the chance of pregnant girls clustering together and therefore producing most friend-groups with no pregnancies.
October 25, 2009 - 9:48pmThis Comment
Hehe, I think that the author simply meant that in the school 1 in 7 (actually 6.9565) girls are pregnant and she was not making a commentary on the social groups of the kids.
October 26, 2009 - 2:21amThis Comment
This site practices censorship. I've repeatedly posted a comment which was repeatedly deleted. I editted it so that it was NOT profane (by the definintion of the moderator), not even as profane as the moderator's own post against profanity. And still it was deleted, which can ONLY be because it went against the personal beliefs of the moderator (censorship). Madonna and her ilk WERE a majoral cause of today's explosive teen pregnancy rate, sorry you idolized her so much in the 80's, but the truth IS the truth. I'm tired of a world that protects lies with the concept of 'free speech' and yet practices censorship of truth at the same time. What kind of world are you all creating? Go ahead and ban me, it'd be a first, but so what.
October 24, 2009 - 2:38pmThis Comment
Imagine that, I learned a new word "majoral" in an article about pregnancy.
October 26, 2009 - 2:16amYou cannot seriously believe that the problem with popular culture began in the 1980's. What about Elvis and rock and roll since its inception? What we are seeing now is a trend that started a long time ago. Images of purely sexual nature are as old as the art of making images. Stroll through an art museum sometime and you'll see more people without clothes than with and many of them in lewd positions.
The problem is parenting. If we raise our children to have strong moral values, they will be able to resist the negative influences out there. We need to start doing this at the birth of the child and not stop until it is time for the child to leave the nest. Treat your children with respect but let them know what you expect of them in return. Teach them that teenagers do not have the right to absolute privacy because they are too naive to steer themselves from harm's way on their own. They are not living in their own apartment at the age of 15 (or 16-18) because they are not ready to be away from parental guidance.
We are letting go of our children too early.
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how could you possible compare beautiful art to what the media does to sexuality today!! this is outraging to me, look at the artwork from the roman empire, all of the naked women in these pieces were married and completely loyal, but they were also very beautiful and they cherished the female form. When you look at a beautiful painting of a woman laying on a bed, you feel her grace, her emotions, her longing, you dont feel horny. Really if anything this art shows us that we used to be comfortable enough with the body to see it in an artform without it being inappropriate, it was once it became so taboo that people started taking advantage of it.. Like a drug, once you know you can get in trouble for it, there is a sort of game in doing it, a rush.
October 27, 2009 - 8:21pmThis Comment