SEXUAL ABUSE AND TEEN PREGNANCY
OVER HALF THE BABIES BORN TO GIRLS 18 YRS AND YOUNGER FATHERED BY MEN ALMOST 20 YRS OLDER
Child and adolescent sexual abuse is a risk factor and common cause of teen pregnancy. Up to 66% of pregnant teens report histories of sexual abuse.
Read carefully, sexual abuse has been linked to high-risk behaviors that may account for increased risk of unplanned pregnancy including early initiation to sex, failure to use contraception, prostitution, physical assault in relationships and abuse of alcohol and drugs.
Girl with histories of sexual abuse have been found to have a greater desire to conceive and increased fertility concerns than girls without abuse histories. Teen pregnancy maybe a sign of ongoing sexual abuse and pregnancy may be a direct result from an episode of abuse.
TEEN PREGNANCY, RAPE, AND COERCIVE SEX
Researchers Boyer and Fine, found that of 500 young women who were pregnant 44% had been raped and half were raped more than once. The same study identified a total of over 200 girls with pre-pregnancy sexual abuse (molestation, attempted rape or rape) and 125 didn’t consent to sex that led to their pregnancy.
BOYFRIENDS CAN BE PERPETRATORS TOO
Sixty percent (60%) of over 400 teen mothers had coercive sexual experiences and 23% became pregnant by the perpetrator. Coercive sex acts against adolescent girls are frequently perpertrated by their boyfriends. Researchers also found that men who victimized and impregnated 23% of the teen mothers were predominately teens’ boyfriends or friends(83%), the majority of whom were 5 to 10 years older.
THE YOUNGER THE GIRL, THE OLDER THE MAN
Boyfriends, considerably older than their adolescent girlfriends, are responsible for the majority of teen pregnancies. Over half of all infants born to women younger than 18 was fathered by adult men; with 40% of 15 year old girls having infants with partners aged 20 years or older.
Research suggests that the younger the mother, the greater the partner age gap with men 4 years older than senior high school mothers, 6 years older than than the junior high school mothers. Another study found that 42% of girls younger than 15 years reported that their first intercourse was nonconsensual.
STATUTORY RAPE LAWS AND TEEN PREGNANCY RATE
These findings must raise concern about the role of “predatory” adult men in a teenage childbearing. Some policy makers have come to believe that rigorous enforcement of statutory rape laws will deter adult men who “prey” on minor females and this will lead to a reduction in teenage pregnancy and births.
However these measure may be dangerous and prevent teenage girls who are sexually active and pregnant from seeking the medical care they need.
Reported in the JAMA ( Journal of the American Medical Association, 1998, V. 280. No. 7), by M. Joycelyn Elders, Former Surgeon General of US and Alexa E. Albert.