Thinking About the Consequences Wednesday, October 07, 2009 By Zalak Patel - Advertising It feels like more and more teenagers are getting pregnant these days. I see and hear about young teen pregnancies all the time now, whether at school, the news, or on TV, teen pregnancies are everywhere. A long time ago, teen pregnancies were considered shameful, but now whenever we hear about these stories, we never really stop and think about them anymore. Now, teen pregnancies are more common than ever and are considered normal, which I don't understand.   It makes me angry when I hear about a teen getting pregnant, because at such a young age, there is no way you are ready to have a child. Raising a child is extremely difficult and a lot of teens don't realize how much time and effort it can take. With my schedule, I barely have time for school, homework, and my after school activities. I can't imagine how tough it would be to have to do all this and raise a child at the same time. I love kids, but I know I couldn't properly take care of a child until at least my last years of college or even after college.   The part which makes me angriest is there are so many different consequences of getting pregnant at a young age teenagers don't think about. I think the biggest consequences teens need to start thinking about before getting pregnant would be educational, financial, and emotional consequences.   Most teens who have a child in high school either end up dropping out entirely, or finishing high school but not going on to college. You will want your child to be able to look up to you as a role model; what will they think of you when you tell them you dropped out of high school or didn't go to college? There are few teens with kids who end up finishing high school and college, but it doesn't happen often. This doesn't surprise me. Like I said earlier, it would be tough to raise a child and go to school, even if you do have the support of your parents, the child's mother/father, ect.   If you don't finish high school or go to college, your chances of getting a good job are slim. After you have the baby, your financial woes will increase because having a baby is expensive. The economy is already messed up. How many teens will be able to find a financially stable job? Probably not many. Few teens are lucky enough to get financial support from their parents, but if you rely on your parents too much to help you raise your child, you aren't mentally ready to have a kid and should have thought it through more.   Not all pregnant teens decide to keep their baby. Some decide to go with abortion or adoption. This is where the emotional consequences come in. I think abortion is wrong, but teens do go through it and it can be really hard because you've already developed a bond with your unborn child. Abortion is tough emotionally and I don't think a teen's life would ever be the same after abortion. Adoption, I would think, would be ever tougher emotionally because you've held the child and become attached to it. Either way, you'd be going through an emotional roller coaster, and no teen should have to go through this.   Whether teens decide to keep the baby or go with abortion or adoption, their life will change drastically. Even if the teen unintentionally gets pregnant by their mistake of not being careful, their whole life will be affected by their tiny, little mistake.   I think not getting pregnant at such a young age is probably one of the smartest choices a teen could ever make. Getting pregnant at a young age, whether on purpose or not, shows immaturity and shows you are not ready to become a parent. There are numerous ways of prevention from teen pregnancies. I think being educated in these different ways and the consequences of teen pregnancies will help prevent it, so talk to your parents or anybody else you can talk to about prevention, the consequences, and sex in general, if you have no yet done so. Getting pregnant as a teen will affect your life, so think it through and make the right choice by not getting pregnant at a young age.

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