Teenage pregnancy refers to adolescent girls, usually within the ages of 13-19 who have not yet reached legal adulthood and became pregnant. It is one of the most alarming issues around the world, today. Teenage pregnancy is not a new issue, in fact, it has been a rising concern here in the Philippines for the past few years, because it is one of the major factors that affect population growth here in the Philippines. We all know that here in the Philippines, population increasing rate and poverty is a big problem.

Teenage pregnancy occurs due to many reasons. Some of this are peer pressure, lack of attention of the parent, lack of knowledge about sexual intercourse, and underage drinking. According to (McCullough & Sherman, 1991). Teenage pregnancy could also be caused by family relationships. Teenagers, whose parents don’t show much affection, little communication or show rejection to their children and these teens, tend to seek for these actions outside. They find relationships that will give them the affection and attention that they don’t receive at home.

Sex education can be another cause of teen pregnancy because some schools do not have in depth sexual education. Most of them just teach that sex is wrong and at a young age sexual intercourse is not normal and it is not good, it might lead to teenage pregnancy they do not teach about the methods of protected sex or different options of contraception. Some people believe that teaching about sexual intercourse and giving contraception is another way of encouraging them to do that. In the Philippines, distributing condoms to high school students in some schools criticize by the people. Even the Catholic Bishop’s said it is a waste of public funds. Another cause of teenage pregnancy can be assumed that there is a lacking aspect in communication within society and teenage girls. Sexual intercourse is common in youths, even if they know what will might happen if they do that they still do those things. It because they know that there is a contraceptive that will help them to prevent from getting pregnant. A majority of teen pregnancies wish that they had waited until they were older. Teens nowadays is making decisions on their own without thinking about the consequences that might happen. Every day thousands of teenagers are putting themselves at risk for pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases like HIV/AIDS that increases now in the Philippines. We all know that each individuals has the right to choose what is right and what is wrong, to live, to express their feelings, beliefs, opinions and to even decide for their own future. Everybody has a right to speak up for what is right and what is wrong. But as we can see, this freedom given to this young people by the society is not being used properly. They tend to do things that is not good for them, that is not beneficiary for them. Nowadays teenage pregnancy increases not only in the Philippines but all over the world. Many teenagers engage themselves in sexual intercourse with their partners, boyfriends/girlfriends, just to be in with their friends. Because they believe that having a sex is cool. Some teenagers engage themselves in sexual intercourse at a young age because of poverty. Most of the teenager’s option to have a sexual intercourse is because they need to achieve the acceptance given by the people around them or given by their own circle of friends. Young people are easy to get influenced by those people who believe that sexual intercourse is normal and it is cool. And also teenagers are to get influenced by the social media. The exposure of the sexual content through technologies really influenced them to do those things. We all know that sexual intercourse is natural right? Many people do that. But the thing is it is not natural and good for the teenagers to do that. Yes it is natural but only for those people who have reached legal adulthood. We all noticed that teenagers nowadays have a boyfriend/girlfriend, even 13 years old have a boyfriend/girlfriend now. It is because before and now is different, it is also because they tend to look for attention, love and support, acceptance towards other people. Most of the teenagers now live in the culture of being liberated. Being a mother at an early age is not easy, because of their maturity levels sometimes even their current lifestyles are not fitted to be a mother. The disadvantage of getting pregnant at a young age is we all know that young girls nowadays have different vices which may affect their child and themselves in the long run of their early pregnancy. And also young girls like to go out, attend to parties, happy go lucky and you only lived once is their usually believe in, they like to go shopping. Young girls nowadays do not help their parents at home. They always go home late. So when they get pregnant at an early age they will having a hard time because they did not even know how to take care of their baby. Early pregnancy is not really a good thing. It will affect your studies, your lifestyle, people around you, and of course your parent(s). For the parent(s) of teenager this will creates a struggle for them because they will end up with load of caring and looking after the child while the teenage parents are at school. Also teen parents struggle of dealing parenthood that’s why they think for a not-so-good solution, abortion and adoption. Two different ways to escape from the reality. Teenage pregnancy increases so the government make a way to prevent the rate of teen pregnancies from increasing. More precautions should be enforced. Nowadays more and more teens are becoming sexually active without completely thinking the consequences if they do that and also without understanding the precautions that need to be taken when doing so. By providing some birth controls in high school it would give protection against early pregnancy and STDs. Society also needs to face the reality that teenagers now are engaging themselves in unprotected sex because of the lack of availability of protection. According to the New York Times, a study carried out by the American Academy of Paediatrics in April 2006, twelve-to fourteen-year-old teens exposed to sexual content through music, movies, television, and magazines are twice as likely to become sexually active within two years. Technologies itself really affects the teenage pregnancies. There are many mature content in social media even in television. Most of the teenagers spend their time in social media. They are exposed to the mature content which is not good, because it encourage them to do that. There are many different ways to prevent a teenage girl from becoming pregnant. First is that teenagers need to have a comprehensive understanding of sexual abstinence. This method is the only one that guarantees no risk of getting pregnant and protects the teen from getting any STD’s. Second is teenagers need to learn about the different contraceptive techniques. and of course they need to know the consequences if they do such a thing. Teens need to know the reality that raising a baby is not that easy and the negative impacts of having a baby in an early age. Also unplanned pregnancy can ruin everything including your future. For the teens, before you do that thing you need to think the consequences you will be facing and also remember that it is God’s plan to wait until you get married. Some people believe that if girls have a good and loving parents they might not have go looking for attention in a boyfriend or other people, and maybe they won’t make choices of doing sexual intercourse in an early age and if that’s the case, teen pregnancies will be lowered and prevented.