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wingspan • may 12, 2010
in Teen pregnancy results in serious lifestyle changes for the parents County’s teen pregnancy rate goes down great way to prevent pregnancy if you watch those shows,” Stipe said. “Before these shows came out the teen pregnancy rates were a lot higher, espeteenage girl walks into her bath- cially in the ’70s and ’80s. People know that teen room, afraid of what she will discover. pregnancy is an issue now.” North Carolina’s General Assembly recently With apprehension, she approaches the bathroom counter where her home pregnancy enacted the “Healthy Youth Act” that will take eftest is lying. She picks it up with quivering hands fect in the 2010-11 school year. The law requires and sees the result. The tiny plus sign confirms that N.C. public schools teach students about contraceptive methods of preventing pregnancy her worst fear that she is pregnant. “Being pregnant is kind of exciting, but it’s beginning in the seventh grade. Educators must nerve-wracking because you don’t know what is continue to present information in a way that going to happen or where you’re going to be,” a promotes abstinence until marriage and must alstudent at West who is pregnant said. “It’s taking low parents the option of pulling their children out of any portion of the sex education course. on a responsibility.” The student discovered that she was preg- State legislators hope that teaching about contraceptives will decrease the teen nant earlier this year and decidpregnancy rate even more. ed to keep her child. Cathy Corliss, health and I’m a firm In 2008, 168 other teenage physical education teacher, said girls of the approximate 3,250 believer that she hopes the new law will rein Henderson County faced this information does duce teen pregnancy by allowing same situation. This statistic her and other health teachers to may seem high, but the number not hurt. I think teach about contraceptives withis significantly lower than the you can make a out encouraging sexuality. Her 201 teens that were pregnant in method is to teach about con2007. Henderson County has hismore intelligent traceptive use between married torically had one of the highest decision if it’s couples, not between teenagers. teen pregnancy rates in North “When I talk about contracepCarolina, but the rates have based on facts. tion, it’s in the basis of marriage. dropped in recent years. Cathy Corliss The kids might have questions According to Summer Stipe, health and physical about the different things that adolescent parenting program education teacher are out there, so we give that coordinator, North Carolina has information, but we definitely the ninth highest teen pregnancy rate in the country. The national teen pregnancy encourage the setting of marriage,” Corliss said. rate is 71.5 teens out of 1,000 girls, while North “I’m a firm believer that information does not hurt. I think that you can make a more intelliCarolina’s rate is 63 teens per 1,000 girls. “Henderson County’s pregnancy rate is 51.7 gent decision if it’s based on factual information pregnant girls per 1,000 girls between 10 and 19 that you’ve learned. Giving the right information years old,” Stipe said. “We’re just slightly below doesn’t automatically encourage the behavior.” Even with the increasing consciousness of the state average.” Stipe attributes the decline to the growing the adolescent pregnancy issue in America, Stipe awareness of teen pregnancy. She said that televi- said numerous factors, including the media and sion shows such as 16 and Pregnant help adoles- changes in sex education, can affect the rate. “The people doing research on teen pregcent girls understand how difficult being a teen- nancy haven’t been able to say why the teen pregage parent actually is. “I have seen an episode of 16 and Pregnant, nancy rate in the U.S. is so high; they can’t even and I would say it’s right on. The life that the nail down why the rate goes up, then goes down mothers lead is very realistic. I know the National slightly, then back up,” Stipe said. “They just know Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned that we’re the top country in the industrialized Pregnancy supports the show. They feel like it’s a world for teen pregnancy.”
A Teen dads face negative stereotypes
they’re not even involved.” According to Hernandez, even when the teen dads are involved, the relationship is not guaranooking at the ultrasound screen while sitting teed to last. in the white-tiled room, it suddenly hit senior “Some of the girls we see just move in with their T.J. Gordon that he was going to be a father. boyfriend. He’ll move in with her or she’ll move in His girlfriend had been pregnant since January, with him,” Hernandez said. “But if the father isn’t and he was anxiously watching the first ultra- around, not having a positive male role model in sound with her. He had never realized that their the child’s life could lead to other consequences.” on-and-off relationship would lead up to this life- According to www.howstuffworks.com, when changing moment. teen fathers stay with the mother and child, their “I got to see the first ultrasound and that was educational achievement is reduced and their heart wrenching. It didn’t hit me until I actually long-term opportunity to earn money is less than saw it. I started crying,” Gordon said. “I got home that of teenagers without children. and I was just bawling my eyes out. I saw it, and it Gordon said he is working to save money was definitely changing. The baby is changing me for the approaching due date and it is a stereoa lot; I’m becoming a different man.” type that all teen dads don’t want to support their According to an article on teen pregnancy child. This stereotype is enforced by television from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen shows such as 16 and Pregnant, which focus priand Unplanned Pregnancy, eight out of 10 teen marily on the life of the mother but basically igfathers do not end up marrying nore the father. the mother of their child. Few “It’s not at all true. I think some end up being involved with their teen dads can not be involved, I want to be child after its birth. However, but not all of them. I think people there for my freshman Joey Nour and Gordon need to come up with their own said they want to go against the opinions instead of just reading baby. I look at stereotype and be a part of their statistics,” Gordon said. “I’m trymy dad and how baby’s life. ing to be a part of the baby’s life, he’s been to me, “I want to be there for the but I think some guys run from it, baby. I want to teach my kid reand that’s where I think they get and I want to spect. She will have respect,” those statistics.” be that kind of Gordon said. “I look at my dad Despite their intentions to and how he’s been to me, and I stick around, teen dads such as father. want to be that kind of father.” Gordon and Nour are still judged Nour and his girlfriend are T.J. Gordon by others. Gordon admits to getengaged and plan to get married senior ting dirty looks and whispers in three years when they comwhen people walk by, but said he 25,000 plete their education. Regardless of his girlfriend’s has his friends to support him. move away from Henderson County, Nour said he “People talk a lot of trash, but my friends will continue to visit her and the baby. are actually really supportive. It’s times like these “We’re both staying in school. She has to when you find out who your true friends are,” move with her mom because her dad can’t take Gordon said. “I can count on one hand how many care of her, and he’s moving,” Nour said. “I can see real friends I actually have. You find these things her every few weeks. During the summer, I’ll get out in hard times.” to keep (daughter) Lylian Marie for a month.” Gordon said he is optimistic about the rela But teen fathers such as Gordon and Nour tionship between him and his child. To people are rare. It is uncommon to see teen dads stick who are facing the same circumstances as he is, 20,000 around and stay in touch with their baby and he said it is important to be compassionate about mother, according to Jessica Hernandez, coor- the situation. dinator for Adolescent Parenting Program (APP) “It’s hard, but you can get through it. If I can for the Children and Family Resource Center of get through it, then you can because I’m not the Henderson County. smartest guy. I don’t have the most common sense, “A lot of the girls think, ‘Oh, he’s going to and I’m not the best with my money,” Gordon stay around, he’s going to help me,’ but the real- said. “This kind of stuff brings it out in you. The ity is more than 50 percent don’t stay with mom only advice I would give someone is to ride it out. 15,000 and the baby,” Hernandez said. “A lot of the time, Go with the flow, and follow your heart.”
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Rachel Shoemaker Staff Writer
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Diane Gromelski Staff Writer
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Number of teenage pregnancies in N.C. per year
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
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2008
Pregnancy at a young age results in many future challenges the
U.S. has the
HIGHEST teen pregnancy rateamong
ALL
industrialized nations www.livestrong.com
Marissa Treible Staff Writer
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hinking back on her high school years, Janae Howard’s most prominent memories are not of prom or graduation. Instead, she remembers discovering she was pregnant the summer before her junior year. “I was 16, and it was about three months before my 17th birthday,” Howard, who is now 19 and attending Blue Ridge Community College, said. “I was shocked. I didn’t expect it at all.” According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, the United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the industrialized world with about three out of 10 girls getting pregnant before they turn 20. Each year, teen pregnancy costs taxpayers approximately $9.1 billion through public health care, child welfare and state-funded programs designed to help teenage mothers. A number of organizations have been created to help prevent teen pregnancy and help teen mothers. One of these programs is the Adolescent
Parenting Program (APP) which helps teen mothers who are still enrolled in high school. Some of the services provided by the APP are transportation to and from doctor’s appointments and help finding community resources, including day care. “Being a teenager is hard enough without adding a baby on top of it. It’s a challenge, so we provide support for them,” Summer Stipe, a coordinator at the Henderson County APP, said. “Requirements for our program are that teen moms must be enrolled in school, and it must be a first-time pregnancy.” Stipe said there are three options available for a girl who finds herself pregnant: keeping the baby, giving the baby up for adoption and seeking an abortion. According to an article published by the Guttmacher Institute, teenagers obtain only 17 percent of all abortions. “I’ve never come across a teen mom that has considered abortion since I started; most of our girls are against that,” Stipe said. A student at West, who recently learned that she is pregnant, said she never considered abortion. “I don’t
believe in abortion,” the student said. “I decided that if it’s my mistake then I should keep it.” Only 5 percent of teen pregnancies in the United States end with an adoption. “I have had a couple of girls that have considered it, and we’ve walked through the adoption counseling process, but we have not had a girl that chose to give her baby up for adoption,” Stipe said. “Most decide to keep their child.” Teen pregnancy can make continuing in school difficult. Seven out of 10 teen moms drop out of high school, according to Stipe. As an alternative, some girls choose to be home schooled. “I kept going to high school, but I was home schooled instead of actually going in to class,” Howard said. “And I went to college just like I planned.” Balfour Education Center has a day care program for the young mothers called Early Head Start Day Care, with a capacity of 16 children up to 2 years old. For teen parents that do not attend Balfour, there are other opportunities to find child care in Henderson County. “When a girl has delivered and done six weeks of homebound, at that
point she has to go back to school and that child has to have somewhere to go,” Stipe said. “There’s a fantastic program through the state called Department of Social Services (DSS) Childcare Subsidy. They provide childcare for teen mothers while they’re enrolled in school. They really want to see them graduate.” Families of teenage parents may also help watch the child and often try to be very supportive of the teen parents. “My family is actually really supportive. My mom was really supportive and said she would help me; my dad was the same,” Howard said. “They help me all the time. When I need babysitters, they’re there for me.” Pregnancy can completely change a teenager’s future. “They’ve learned to love their children. What we’ve heard the girls say is that they would never take away their child, and they would never wish that they didn’t have that child,” Stipe said. “But they do wish they had waited longer. They all say, ‘I wish I would’ve waited until I was more mature, out of school and had money,’ but I don’t think they would ever say they wished the child didn’t exist.”