Modest Proposal

Today one of our most growing issues in America is teen pregnancy. Now a day’s media plays a huge role in a regular teenagers life. Television, magazines, and the Internet have been sending a message that sex is okay. Teenagers think that loosing their virginity before the age of 18 is “cool.” Many teens are put into situations where they feel they must have sex and don’t care about protection. Many teens that have sex without using protection can lead to pregnancy. Being a teenager and pregnant completely changes a teenagers life. First of all, many teens drop out of school so they can take care of the baby and work to support her baby. This causes a lack of education enabling the teenage mother to get a proper job to support her and her baby. Second, their are many health risks to babies of teen mothers. Thirdly, the teenage will grow up too fast and not have the proper childhood. Instead of being able to go and hang out with friends on a Friday night, they have to stay home and take care of their child.

Not being able to live a proper childhood could cause depression for the teenage which is both bad for her and her child. In some cases teenagers make the smart decision of giving their child up for adoption, but other teenagers make the stupid choice of wanting to raise their child at such a young age. That is why I have come up with a solution to this horrible problem. My solution is that all boys should get a vasectomy at the age of 13. Before the vasectomy the doctor collects some of the boy’s sperm into a sperm bank for later use. After a man and women get married after the age of 21, they can go to the government to get a license that they are allowed to have kids. Both the husband and wife will go to their doctors with their license and passports, showing the doctor that they have the rights to have a child. The doctor will then take the sperm from the boy that was collected at the age of 13 and implant it into the women. This idea is a perfect solution to teen pregnancy in America.

Being a teenager and pregnant causes the teenager to drop out of school so they can get a job to support their child. About 64% of pregnant teenagers drop out of high school compared to 7% of teenagers with children over the age of 21 and high school graduates. A child born to a teenage mother is 50% more likely to repeat a grade in school and perform poorly on tests and drop out before finishing high school. About 40% of teenagers who have children before the age of 18 go on to graduate from high school compared to 75% of teenagers from similar social and economic backgrounds that do not have a child until over the age of 21. Dropping out of high school means the teenage mother will not get a proper education to get a good job to support her and her baby. With her education cut short, a teenage mother may lack job skills, making it hard for her to find and keep a job. A teenage mother could become financially dependent on her family, but in most situations that is highly likely to not be the case.

Teen mothers are more likely to live in poverty than women who delay childbearing, and more than 75% of all unmarried teen mothers go on welfare within five years of the birth of their first child. This all can be prevented if all boys get a vasectomy in America at the age of 13. Their are many health risks to babies of teen mothers. A child of teenage mother is at higher risk than a baby born to an older mother for premature birth, low birth weight and other serious health problems and death. Babies of teen mothers are most likely to die before the age of one. The risk is highest for babies of mothers under age 15. In 2005, 16.4 out of every 1,000 babies of women under age 15 died, compared to 6.8 per 1,000 for babies of women of all ages. Babies born to teen mothers are more likely to have low-birth weight baby. The earlier a baby is born, the less the baby is likely to weigh. In 2006, 10% of mothers at the age of 15 to 19 had a low-birth weight baby, compared to 8.3% for mothers of all ages.

Babies who are born to teenage mothers are more likely to be born at a low-birth weight and a defected organ. This can lead to breathing problems, bleeding in the brain, vision loss, and serious intestinal problems. Babies with low-birth weight (less than 3 1/3 pounds) are more than 100 times as likely to die before the age of one. Babies with a moderate low birth weight (between 3 1/3 and 5 1/2 pounds) are more than 5 times likely to die, in their first year of birth than normal-weight babies. The only way to prevent teenagers from having babies with horrible heath problems is by all boys at the age of 13 to get a vasectomy.

The many perks of being a teenage are being able to live your life. On the weekends you get to hang out with your friends, go to parties, and sometimes act a little crazy. When you have a child your freedom is restricted because of the responsibilities you have to take on. Teenagers should be able to go out with their friends on the weekends and have a blast, rather than staying home to take care of a baby. No teenager should have to wake up in the middle of the night to take care of their baby, or stay home from school because your child is sick. Having a child at such a young age is a horrible idea, but all boys having a vasectomy at the age of 13 can prevent this all. Teenagers will be able to attend school and live their life without the responsibility to take care of another human being.