Teenage pregnancy is an overwhelming problem in the United States. Over one million American teenagers become pregnant each year this means that 1 in 10 girls will become pregnant annually. Also, every 26 seconds a teenage girl becomes pregnant and every 56 seconds a child of a teenage mother is born. More than 600,000 of these teenage girls will give birth and only ninety percent of these girls will elect to keep their baby. Since these girls are so young their babies will have a higher chance of being born with birth defects such as being born prematurely, suffer from mental retardation, and other birth defects http://www.childbirthsolutions.com/articles/pregnancy/teensex/index.php).

Many reasons contribute to the high rate of teenage pregnancy. Some of these reasons include, not being educated about the birth-control methods made available to them, such as the birth-control pill and condoms, which are supplied at free c

linics. A teenage girl may want to become pregnant because that child will be someone to love, who will love the teenager in return. Some teenagers may view having a child as an achievement, and something to be proud of. Still other teenage girls want a baby for the idealized, but unrealistic, things that go along with being a mother. Depression is also common among teenage girls, which may lead them to thinking that becoming pregnant and having a baby will make them happier.

Currently non-white females are twice as likely to experience pregnancy as a teenager. Fifty- eight percent of all black families with children are headed by single mothers, compared to 19 percent of all whites (Zackler, 1990).

Teenagers that come from low-income families and families that live poverty make up 38 percent of the increased pregnancy rate. Poor teenagers are more sexually experienced than those of higher incomes are, yet they use contraception less frequently and less successfully, and they have higher rates of pregnancy. Medicaid, Title X, and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) are three government programs that subsidize contraceptive services for poor and low-income adolescents(http://www.plannedparenthood.org/library/TEEN-PREGNANCY/Reducing.html).

Minorities have the highest birth rate than any other races. Hispanic females in the United States have the highest rate of teen pregnancies than any other ethic groups. The rate is that three out of five female Hispanic teens will become pregnant before the age nineteen.

By having all these new problems to deal with without a fully developed maturity, the mother can also suffer from emotional and mental stagnation. Her peers may reject her as society deems teenage pregnancy unacceptable. She may feel humiliated and a

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