Why Abstain? Pregnancy

No form of birth control - not one - is 100% effective except for tubal ligation - and what teenage girl wants to have her "tubes tied?"

Teenage pregnancy can cause a couple to break up or push them into a poorly-conceived marriage.

Pregnant girls are very likely to drop out of school. Only 41 percent of girls who have babies before they turn 18 go on to graduate from high school. Teen mothers typically earn half the wages they otherwise might have, had they waited. 67% of pregnant teens live in poverty. 75% go on welfare within five years.

Teen mothers are more than twice as likely to give birth prematurely. Babies born too soon face an increased risk of health problems, disabilities and death. Because of their lifestyle and eating habits, teens also have a higher than average rate of low-birthweight babies, as well as stillbirths. Low-birthweight babies may have organs that are not fully developed, leading respiratory distress, bleeding in the brain, vision loss and other serious health problems. Low-birthweight babies are more than 20 times more likely to die in the first year as normal-weight babies.

A child born to an teen who drops out is 10 times more likely to be living in poverty at age 12, is 50% more likely to repeat grades in school, and is more likely drop out before finishing high school.

An unplanned pregnancy can cause people to marry the wrong person. Teens who marry because of pregnancy are three times more likely to divorce.

But one can always get an abortion right? 400,000 teens have abortions each year. Religious objections aside, having an abortion can be a contributing factor in depression and suicide. Think we're exaggerating? Consider the following:

* A 1986 study by the University of Minnesota found that a teenage girl is ten times more likely to attempt suicide if she has had an abortion in the six months prior. Although pregnancy has been shown to weaken suicidal tendencies, abortion dramatically increases the risk of suicide.

* The Cincinnati Suiciders Anonymous reported that they counseled 4,000 women in a 35-month period. Over 1,800 of these women had had abortions and 1,400 of those who had had abortions were between the ages of 15 and 24, the age group with the fastest-growing suicide rate in the country.

* A 1987 study of women who suffered from post-abortion trauma found that 60% had considered suicide, 28% had attempted suicide, and 18% percent had attempted suicide more than once, often years later.

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