An Essay of My Opinion on the Increasing Rate of Teenage Pregnancy
Essay from Jeremiah Lucas Opira Memorial Contest 2023
Nyerodwe Ponsiano
4th runner up, Category 2
Greetings to you all, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. My name is Nyerodwe Ponsiano, a student av Rev. Jabuloni Issoke Memorial College, S.3. I am seventeen years old and I live in Iulojo, opposite the mosque. I am an aspirant for this essay writing, since I am so confronted that it iwll contribute more towards my academics and social life.
The topic, teenage pregnancy, is a very good one since it can be used to eradicate the vice itself. Teenage pregnancy comes are very many factors and is caused by many people of different ages to the young girls of our motherland. Itself is a vice that should be eradicated as early as possible before it spreads and becomes normal to everyone.
A teenager is simply a person whose age is between thirteen and nineteen years. Teenage pregnancy is a scenario where a young girl is carrying a fetus, a fetus which is usually unwanted. Many young girls in Uganda are suffering a lot because of this bad practice.
In this essay, I shall narrow down the most common causes in Uganda, although I shall give examples from abroad through, but mainly I intend to follow this very road mark from causes, effects and ways of solving the deadly vice and conclude.
Now, in Uganda, over a million girls are suffering from unwanted pregnancies because of this bad practice and are now facing serious complaining and regretting. The causes of teenage pregnancy are as stated below:
Setting the children free
This is when the boys and girls are left to always roam free unsupervised. They are left in a position to do anything they feel is good for themselves, leading to them being involved in early relationships which leads to unwanted pregnancies.
Poor parental guidence
This is a scenario where the parents themselves actively give up since they failed in their duties as parents, giving a clear “go ahead” to their children to continue immoral behavior leading to teenage pregnancy. For instance, a child whose mother had given up on him or her already.
Desires for materialistic things
Some of the young girls are lured into having different morals as it will make them get what they desire. In this case, the boys with money and expensive materials can easily trap young teenage girls who love phones and money a lot. Later, they are being fooled to engage in sexual activities and in the end left alone to battle with the pregnancies and the strings attached to it.
Influence of peer pressure
This is when your fellow friends force you to engage yourself into doing something that is not right. In most cases, other children force their friends to get engaged in early sex which later leads to pregnancies and in the end, no one attends to them after getting pregnant.
Nature of environment
This is when the environment arises the feeling of immoral behaviors of sex. For example, a child who grows up near where a prostitute live will also grow up to be like them. Sometimes, the clothes style you see around you will arise your feelings for sex and later you will find yourself pregnant since most of the grown-up men in towns always looks for the younger girls.
Death of parents
Some young girls are orphans, and a taken care by their uncles and aunts. This sometimes leads to vice in such a way that the aunts force the girls to be engaged in some immoral work like late bar mates, prostitution and many others. This leads to a high influence of exposure to teenage pregnancies.
Clothing styles
When young girls discover new stylish clothes on the market, they want to put it on whether or not it is good for them. Some of the clothes are short and transparent which leads to a rise in rape cases. This is a big cause to teenage pregnancy.
Curiosity for sex
This comes when someone wants to know what something is about. In this case, children listen to adults that say that sex is a nice thing which leads to them wanting to try it for themselves. If they like the feeling of having sex, they may not want to continue having it, leading to early pregnancy.
Lack of religious guidance to teens
Some young girls and boys are not taught the right ways of God. A God-fearing child would not be involved in dirty acts such as sex when they are young.
Early engagement in the boy/girl relationship
This is when boys and girls start desiring each other while young. It is mostly done in social environments such as schools. This leads to them wanting to feel what sex is like, which opens a door to teenage pregnancy.
Weakness in the academic sector
Some teenagers find themselves weak in the academic sector and cannot continue, so they instead choose to stay at home. In their homes, there is a high unpreventable risk of early teenage pregnancy.
Great exposure to pornographic materials
This is when young girls and boys watch online porn videos, movies and photos which is not age appropriate. This leads to them developing a desire to try these sexual acts out themselves physically which makes it hard to control their bodily desires. Engaging in such activities could later lead to unwanted pregnancies.
Desire to test their bodily capacity on the sexual ground
This is a sin of God. But even still, after testing their bodily capability there is a risk of an unwanted pregnancy. As said, prevention is better than a cure, so it is advisable that we abstain from sex and stop this as an unwanted pregnancy will ruin our young girls’ future.
The likely effects of teenage pregnancies are:
School drop out
When in school, if a girl gets pregnant, she is suspended or dismissed based on indiscipline. This makes it hard for them to study at any school when pregnant, which therefore leads to the girls deciding to just not study at all.
Death when trying to end the pregnancy
This is when a teenage girl who has fallen victim of a pregnancy chooses to terminate the pregnancy. If something goes sideways, the abortion may lead to the death of both the fetus and the mother if not taken care of properly.
Loss of trust
Some parents have put a lot of trust in their daughters and the moment they get pregnant, every support given to them will be stopped. Therefore, she is neglected and forced to live her own life in misery.
Remorse
This is a great time of regret. Teenagers always regret their teenage pregnancies. This regret can lead to suicide.
Shame
Some neighbors are so jealous and the moment a girl from a respected family gets pregnant, a lot of shame and gossip is spoken unto the parents of the victim girl.
Breakage of virginity
Virginity is a state where a girl has remained clean from any sexual sin. And in some countries, girls are respected because of their virginity, and since it is broken, so will the respect and love be.
Contractions of sexually transmitted diseases
STDs are transmitted through sexual intercourse. Examples of STDs are HIV and syphilis. This will weaken the victim.
Child-parent relationship contamination
This is when the pregnant teenager is completely rejected by her parents and sometimes sent away from home.
Unnecessary financial burdens
When a teenage pregnancy occurs, the money that should be used for other things will be used for the new-born baby such as basins and clothes.
These are the solutions to teenage pregnancies:
- Teenagers should always be kept under keen observation most of the time. This will keep them from associating with bad peer groups.
- Parents must teach their children sexual education. This is when teenagers will learn the disadvantages of early involvement in sex.
- Children should learn discipline from others.
- Children should stop putting interests in materialistic things and instead aim for a better future.
- Teenagers should be selective about the peers that they associate with. Sometimes, it is their peers that lead them to problems.
- Teenagers must agree to appreciate the little their parents can afford to provide. This will make them not fall into problems related to pregnancies while struggling to get more.
- Religious guidance should be done, and perhaps it should be controlled. Teens will realize how important their body is to Christ and appreciate that their body is the temple of Christ.
- Teenagers should learn to control the desire of their body/flesh.
- Parents should restrict the use of phones for their children, meaning they should decide a time and place for them to be used.
- The government should provide projects for unemployed teenagers that will keep them busy and avoid them getting exposed to pregnancy.
- Governments should prepare teams, like an Anti-teenage pregnancy group, to talk to teenagers about why they should avoid sexual acts and to emotionally support the teenagers who have fallen victims.
Finally, everyone has a key role in preventing teenage pregnancies and for it to be eradicated from Uganda. Our society should be a teenage pregnancy free country.
Special thanks to JLOF. May God bless you abundantly.