Adolescent pregnancy in the United States: a review and recommendations for clinicians and research needs.
Adolescent pregnancy, often unplanned and unwanted, has a negative impact on the physical, emotional, educational, and economic condition of the pregnant teenager. Forty percent of the one million adolescents who became pregnant in 1986 chose abortion, and, of the remainder, 61% were unmarried. Teenage mothers in greater numbers and at younger ages are opting to keep and raise their children. In 1987 over $19 billion in federal monies were expended on families begun when the mother was a teenager. The preferred approach to this problem is prevention of teenage pregnancy rather than abortion, with emphasis on sex education and access to family planning information and contraceptive devices for both females and males. Sex education in schools is presented in widely varying formats; in fact, prevention of pregnancy may not even be presented. Family planning clinics are subject to the whims and biases of the funding agencies. Clinicians have an important role in providing guidance for teenage patients and their parents, but can also influence school and community leadership to ensure that all teenagers receive sound sex education in school programs and that family planning agencies are permitted to counsel teenagers and provide contraceptive devices.