Informationsmarktverzerrung durch Fundamentalismus am Beispiel der USA

Kapitel 3: Sexuelle Aufklärung und AIDS

1. Teenager-Schwangerschaften — ein ernsthaftes Problem in den USA


von Margarete Payer

mailto: payer@payer.de


Zitierweise / cite as:

Payer, Margarete <1942 - >: Informationsmarktverzerrung durch Fundamentalismus am Beispiel der USA. -- Kapitel 3: Sexuelle Aufklärung und AIDS. -- 1. Teenager-Schwangerschaften — ein ernsthaftes Problem in den USA. -- Fassung vom 2005-03-23. -- URL: http://www.payer.de/fundamentalismus/fundamentalismus031.htm

Erstmals publiziert: 2005-03-23

Überarbeitungen:

Anlass: Lehrveranstaltung an der Hochschule der Medien Stuttgart, Sommersemester 2005

Copyright: Dieser Text steht der Allgemeinheit zur Verfügung. Eine Verwertung in Publikationen, die über übliche Zitate hinausgeht, bedarf der ausdrücklichen Genehmigung des Verfassers.

Creative Commons-Lizenzvertrag
Diese Inhalt ist unter einer Creative Commons-Lizenz lizenziert.

Dieser Text ist Teil der Abteilung  Länder und Kulturen von Tüpfli's Global Village Library


0. Übersicht




Abb.: Einbandtitel


1. Ein wenig Statistik


Geburten durch Frauen unter 20 pro Million Einwohner, 1998

 
  Country Description Amount
1. United States 1702.66 births per 1 million people
2. Slovakia 1113.06 births per 1 million people
3. New Zealand 993.08 births per 1 million people
4. Iceland 940.17 births per 1 million people
5. Hungary 913.35 births per 1 million people
6. Ireland 799.66 births per 1 million people
7. Poland 787.43 births per 1 million people
8. Portugal 732.82 births per 1 million people
9. Canada 618.49 births per 1 million people
10. Australia 600.49 births per 1 million people
11. Czech Republic 588.82 births per 1 million people
12. Austria 399.96 births per 1 million people
13. Greece 392.18 births per 1 million people
14. Norway 353.48 births per 1 million people
15. Germany 351.94 births per 1 million people
16. France 298.85 births per 1 million people
17. Belgium 289.14 births per 1 million people
18. Finland 286.08 births per 1 million people
19. Spain 280.07 births per 1 million people
20. Luxembourg 244.40 births per 1 million people
21. Denmark 215.62 births per 1 million people
22. Italy 192.29 births per 1 million people
23. Sweden 180.78 births per 1 million people
24. Netherlands 174.79 births per 1 million people
25. Switzerland 149.20 births per 1 million people
26. Japan 137.57 births per 1 million people
  Weighted Average 804.34 births per 1000000 peopl

[Quelle der Tabelle: http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/hea_tee_pre_cap. -- Zugriff am 2005-03-08]

In absoluten Zahlen sind dies 494,357 Teenagergeburten in den USA im Jahr 1998


2. Teenagerschwangerschaften


Teenage pregnancy refers to the controversial social issue of teenage girls getting pregnant. In developing countries teenage pregnancy is quite usual since many women are expected to be married and with children before they are 20.

The perceived problem with teenage pregnancies is that teenagers are not ready, emotionally and financially, to raise children, even if they are physiologically able to. Teenage girls are generally involved in some form of school education and usually still depend on their parents. In many cases, the father of the baby is of similar age and equally unprepared to raise a child.

Teenage pregnancy is of greatest concern in cases where the mother was clearly below the age of consent when the child was conceived.

Choice

If the decision is made not to keep the child there are two main options that may be chosen: abortion or adoption. According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, 30% of teenage pregnancies in the United States result in abortions.

The relationship between the prospective parents may lead to the father or more usually the mother becoming a single parent.

Teenage pregnancy rates

Teenage pregnancy rates vary widely between countries. Some recent statistics for the pregnancy rate per 1000 females 15 to 19 years of age were:

Country Year Rate
United States 2000 83.6
Great Britain 1995 46.7
Canada 1995 45.7
Sweden 1996 25.0
France 1995 20.2


Source: [1] (http://www.siecus.org/pubs/fact/fact0010.html)

Variations in teenage pregnancy appear to have a multitude of possible causes ranging from social mores, family background and education, to economic and social conditions. No consensus exists about the principal causes in variation in teenage pregnancy rates.

Efforts to reduce teenage pregnancy

Sex education

Health educators have long argued that sex education (about contraception and safe sexual behavior) would effectively reduce the number of teenage pregnancies, and countries that do use progressive sex education at a young age, such as the Netherlands, do appear to have a much lower rate of teenage pregnancy than the United States. Proponents of this position hold that providing young people with sexual information allows them to make their own choices about whether or not to have sex, not be be rushed into having sex without realizing the consequences, and to be able to use contraception when they eventually do choose to have sex.

Abstinence

Conservatives in the U.S., on the other hand, believe that sexual abstinence alone is the only safe way to reduce teenage pregnancies. Scientific studies that have examined such programs have shown no effectiveness at preventing pregnancies or revealed a statistical increase in some programs. Some conservatives think that the validity of such studies is questionable. The religious right in particular feels that giving teenagers sexual information would lead to an increase in sexual behavior and that this is undesirable, and that juveniles have therefore to be shielded from such information and instead be informed strictly about the possible negative effects of sexual behavior, such as sexually transmitted diseases. The George W. Bush administration has extensively funded abstinence programs in deference to this point of view.

[Quelle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teenage_pregnancy. -- Zugriff am 2005-03-08]


Zu Kapitel 3.2.: Sexualerziehung