Teen pregnancy has greatly impacted many teens’ lives. 

At the least, a pregnant teen will experience drastic changes that will deeply impact not only herself but also her family. It can also affect the father of the child as well 

School nurse Christy Higginbotham recently spoke about teen pregnancy.

“I think that it’s going to happen regardless of whether or not we push abstinence,” Higginbotham said. “So I just hope teenagers are aware of the risks such as STDs, pregnancy obviously, that they use protection and are smart about it.”

Higginbotham responded with a resounding no when asked if it’s a good decision for teens to have babies.

“Having sex, NO! Motherhood, parenting and fatherhood are very, very difficult,and  time-consuming,” Higginbotham said. “They change your entire life. Teenagers are not ready for that. You guys should be focusing on your careers and school, what you are going to do for yourselves before you take and put your life on a line for another human being…. It’s not time yet.”

Yet teen pregnancy is widespread – 3 in 10 American teen girls get pregnant once before they are 20, according to dosomething.org, which is about 750,000 teen pregnancies a year. 

Parenthood is the leading reason that teen girls drop out of school. 

“Protecting yourself from pregnancy, you are protecting yourself from being a parent at a very, very young age,” Higginbotham said. “It will affect whether or not you may be able to attend college or what kind of work you can do in the future. It’s a financial burden, it’s time, it’s so much work. You need to focus on yourself, not on your baby.” 

“You are actually carrying a human inside of you; it means a lot of responsibility. I mean, it’s another human being I may or may not want to have,” sophomore Margaret Elliott said.

The physical changes that occur during puberty give rise to a variety of social and emotional changes, as well. 

“Having a child changes your entire life. You’re no longer able to focus on yourself because your focus becomes about a whole other person, so it’s draining, it’s exhausting. It’s wonderful, but you need to wait until you are at an age or at a stage of life when you can handle that kind of stress and pressure,” Higginbotham said.

“Physically,  it can affect your body and like, I’m an athlete and it will take me out of my sports, and I will have to take care of the child. Emotionally, postpartum, I would probably have a lot of stress,” freshman Tatum Tauer said.

Many teenagers have to drop out of school because of the heavy burden of having a child at a young age. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 50% of teen moms earn their high school diploma by 22, while 90% of teens who do not have children graduate.

“There’s just not enough time in a day to take care of the baby, go to school, do homework and still be able to work a part-time job and keep up with everything, so it’s a challenge for them academically,” she said. “You can prevent yourself from getting pregnant and you are not going to regret it.  You need to focus on yourself right now, not on a baby.”

“Because sometimes people can’t focus on their kids, they have school and stuff, and it wouldn’t be enough for people to socialize. I think they should tell their  parents about their situation of being pregnant  so the parents will be aware.” junior Taylor White said.