A Step-by-Step Argument for Abortion: Teen Sex & Pregnancy

There are many incorrect assumptions about girls and women who have abortions. Typically anti-abortionists assume that they are young, had sex consensually, did not use protection, and were aware of the consequences. They are accused of being irresponsible, not wanting to face the consequences of their actions, lazy, etc.

Time to clear up those misconceptions.

About 19% of women who have abortions are 19 years old or younger. 32% are between the age of 20-24, and nearly 50% are aged 25 or older. Less than one in five women who get abortion is a teenager. But since people are so eager to blame teenagers for unwanted pregnancies and abortions, sure, let's talk about teenagers.

For starters, teenagers aren't doing all that badly. The pregnancy rate among US teens aged 15-19 has actually gone down since 1990 - from 117 pregnancies per 1000 women in 1990 to 75 per 1000 women in 2002. It's estimated that only about 14% of this decline was due to teenagers actually delaying sex, while 86% was due to teenagers using contraceptives more often.

Teens often don't have correct information about contraceptives, though. About 20% practice withdrawal as their main method of contraception... despite that it's rarely effective, especially since pre-ejaculation can contain semen. Young teen girls may believe the myths their peers and their boyfriends tell them - you can't get pregnant your first time, you can't get pregnant if you do it in this position, you can't get pregnant if you douche afterwards, etc, etc.

Let's take a look at teenage girls who have sex. About 70% of those who had sex before they were sixteen report that they did not want to have sex. 34% report that their partner was 18 years old or older - in other words, that it was statutory rape (the numbers may be higher as sex between, say, a 12-year-old and a 17-year-old would be considered statutory rape as well). 60% of girls who had sex before age 15 - and almost 75% of girls who had sex before age 14 - report having been forced to have sex.

Pregnant teens are even more likely to have been abused. In a study of pregnant and parenting teens, 66% reported having been sexually abused, and 44% reported having been raped.

In case it's not very clear what that means: when you are judging a teenage girl who is pregnant, you are judging a girl who has very likely experienced sexual abuse and is suffering severe emotional trauma as a result. Think about that a bit.

Many pregnant teens are actually being CURRENTLY abused. In one study of pregnant teens, one third reported multiple incidents of violence DURING their pregnancy, the majority citing a current or former partner as the attacker. In another study, which also included non-pregnant teens (though the majority were pregnant or parenting), about 60% report having experienced violence at the hands of their partner.

And here is what in my opinion will be the most shocking to anti-abortionists who make such snap judgments about those girls: 51% of the girls in that study report at least one instant where their partner tried to sabotage their efforts to use birth control.

My main point is that teenage girls aren't really in control of whether or not they have sex and whether or not they use birth control. We live in an extremely sexist society where the man typically has control over the sexual encounter. He is typically the one who initiates it, with the girl often even not wanting to have sex, but giving in due to pressure, coercion, manipulation, or outright force. He is also typically the one who can decide whether or not to allow the use of birth control.

Condoms are fairly easily accessible, though contraceptive services are, contrary to popular belief, typically NOT available to minors (only 21 states allow all minors to get contraceptive services such as birth control without their parents knowledge/consent). However, who's the one who usually gets the condoms? Many teen girls feel that it's socially unacceptable for them to get condoms - that it has to be the guy, because they'd be seen as sluts... for being sexually responsible. Who wears the condom? Who fails to wear it? Who usually has the power?

Did we all forget it takes two to tango? Contrary to what many anti-abortionists believe, the woman typically does NOT have control over the sexual encounter. "Just close your legs," they say, but it's nowhere near that simple. Where's the attacks on the men who get these women pregnant in the first place? Or did the woman just get pregnant all by herself? Why is it assumed she DIDN'T use contraception? Why is it assumed she had the choice of closing her legs to an abusive partner? Why is it assumed she wanted to have sex? Why is it assumed she is able to say no to sex at all?

Stop blaming the girl and start blaming the people who actually had the power over the circumstances that led her to that situation.

Sources:

Abortion Statistics. http://www.abortionfacts.com/statistics/statistics.asp

Women Who Have Abortions. http://www.prochoice.org/pubs_research/publications/downloads/about_abor...

Violence, Abuse, and Adolescent Childrearing: Fact Sheet. http://www.cpeip.fsu.edu/resourceFiles/resourceFile_73.pdf

Teen Pregnancy Prevention. http://www.teenpregnancy.org/resources/data/polling97.asp

Pregnancy and Childrearing Among Younger Teens. http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/PUBLICATIONS/factsheet/fsyoungerteens.h...

Facts in Brief: Teen Sex and Pregnancy. http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_teen_sex.pdf

Teen Dating Violence: An Ignored Epidemic. http://www2.edc.org/gdi/publications_SR/publications/CRicaPub/GutierrezE...

Please feel free to comment with your own opinions as long as you are prepared to discuss and debate them - but please keep the discussions ON TOPIC. If you enjoyed this post (or appreciate the several hours of intensive research I put into it), please give it a high rating and check out the rest of my blog!

A Step-by-Step Argument for Abirtion: Introduction http://www.progressiveu.org/024736-step-step-argument-abortion-introduction