Beth Worthey
6/14/2011
ENG-106 English Composition II

Stopping Teen Pregnancy Every single day, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services, there are 8 fifteen year olds, 24 sixteen year olds and 32 seventeen years olds who give birth. These children are 18% more likely to delay receiving prenatal care and 16% have preterm labor, while 10% of the babies are in the low birth weight category (Teen Birth Fact Sheets, 2011 pg 1-2). Each school district has a health curriculum, which includes sexuality beginning in the 5th grade. The curriculum based on the core values of abstinence is the focus. What the facts are showing is that this type of program is not working. There needs to be an agenda that gives these teens all the facts. Many say that is the parent’s right, but when they do not do their job then it becomes society’s burden. This state and country for that matter, needs to create a new generation who will not have any babies before they are grown themselves. Full facts based, no holds barred curriculum beginning in the 6th grade, which speaks about the traditional topics that your body does in puberty, and then goes further as they continue through school is the goal. Children need to know where babies come from and how not to have one until you are ready. The use of a comprehensive sex education program and giving menstruating girls long-term birth control will stop teen pregnancy in Texas. Each year there are more than 23,000 babies born to teen mothers. "Texas has the third highest rate of teen births and the highest rate of repeat births among 15-19 year olds in the United States,” according to Daniel Alpiger, a senior social work major at the University of North Texas (Cardosa, 2009, par 9). As a teen, they are unable to care completely for their child themselves. They must rely on their own parents or the state to help them