Today, Teenage Mothers are given many choices. They can still attend school with their friends and they can now attend classes that will teach them how to be a parent. They have the option to have their baby adopted and they have the right to say no to abortions. With more and more facilities opening up, such as Planned Parenthood, teens are no longer scared to come out in the open about their sexual practices. Teenagers today now understand the importance of being safe. Planned Parenthood offers free counseling for teens on the options of birth control. They also offer free supplies to teens such as condoms, foam and birth control pills. One of the newest products to just hit the market is “The morning after pill”, an emergency contraceptive. This is to be taken over the course of 72 hours after unprotected sex, to achieve the goal of ending or preventing the pregnancy. This is a high dosage of a birth control pill and should not be used regularly in place of regular contraceptives.
There are many programs to help teenage mothers become the parent they want to be. These programs help them finish high school and get assistance for daycare, clothing, food and even medical assistance. If teenage mothers find that the fathers of the babies won’t accept their responsibility as a parent, they can get assistance from the state for child support from the fathers. Even the rate of dead beat dads has gone down over the years as more and more teens are stepping up to the plate and accepting their responsibilities. Maybe the reason for the decline in teenage mothers is due to better parenting. Parents now talk more with their children. Teaching children early in life on what choices they have and what is the right thing to do.
As our societies continue to grow and learn, the rate of teenage mothers will continue to decline. More girls want to wait till they are older and more educated to experience the joy of parenthood. They are more open about asking for help when they become sexually active and they know that there is help available to them should they become pregnant. They are not alone and they are now seeing that. There are many teenage mothers who are showing a great deal of responsibility, continuing on with their education, and taking “being a mom” very seriously. Although we will never be able to totally protect our children from everything, we can take pride in the fact that we gave them the right tools, to make the right choices. Being there to listen and being understanding with our babies, will help them to be good parents some day when they are ready.