In a survey of nearly 5,000 teenage girls in 19 states who gave birth after unplanned pregnancies, half of the girls said they were not using any birth control when they got pregnant. About a third said they didn’t believe they could get pregnant because it was the first time they had sex or because it was not that time of the month or because they thought they were sterile. The survey, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found that nearly 20 percent said they had used the pill or a birth control patch. Another 24 percent said they used a condom. Thirteen percent said they didn’t use contraception because they had difficulty getting it. Nearly one quarter of the moms didn’t use any protection because their partner didn’t want them to.
While the overall teen birthrate has fallen, we still have a significant number of children with unintended pregnancies. While there is pressure from outside sources, as a country, we need to determine whether we want children having children or whether we need to include sex education in our curriculum.