Mother

Abortion Should Stay Legal By Ariam Abraham Professor Maria Mollinedo English 102 9 December 2011 Abstract The topic of abortion is one of the most controversial of our times. It discusses human interaction where ethics, emotions and law come together. There are different points of views towards abortion. These views can be broken down into two categories, Pro-life and Pro-choice. Everyone has their own views and opinions; despite what several people may believe, abortion is neither right nor wrong. A pro-lifer is against abortion.

Pro-lifers believe that from the moment of conception, the embryo is alive and this life imposes a moral obligation to preserve it. It has a brain and a heart; therefore it also has a right to life. Religion plays a big role on pro-life. Abortion is against the Bible and most religious people don’t believe in it either. On the other hand a pro-choicer would feel that the decision to abort a pregnancy is that of the mothers’; and the state has no right to interfere. Abortion is a women’s own right hand choice. Women should not be forced to have babies they don’t want or aren’t ready for.

They must be able to decide what happens to them and have a safe plus legal way of doing so. Women are in control of their own bodies and lives. Legislators have no right to interfere. Abortion allows us to choose what we want for ourselves, and it also helps us to follow family planning. We have every right to choose whether we want to have an abortion or not. Religious people don’t support it but since it is their belief and decision they should not force other people to be like them. It has been proven above that all their arguments were not fully true.

The reasons why women have abortions vary. It may be a case of rape, physical or psychological condition. A choice must need to be available to prevent the birth of unwanted children, to avoid damage to the child as well as to safeguard the emotional and physical health of women. Abortion is a tough choice and the decision should be a personal one, without interference of government or special interest groups. Outline I. Abortion is a very controversial subject that has been continually argued over for the past few years and probably for many years to come.

A. Abortion is the destruction of a fetus or unborn child while the child is still in the mother’s womb. B. Abortion in the United States has been legal in every state since the United States Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, on January 22, 1973 C. There are two sides to abortion, the pro-life and prochoice. a. Pro-life are people who are against abortion. b. Pro-choice are people who support abortion. II. Religion and philosophy thinking shouldn’t affect the law of abortion. A. A fetus is not a person. B.

Pro-life people shouldn’t push other people to believe their religion. C. The pro-life’s arguments against abortion are provn to be false. a. Women having an abortion have been decreasing since 1973. III. Abortion playes a big role in some cases. A. A pregnancy from rape is better to be avoided. B. Incest children face a lot of difficulties in being accepted by their society. C. Woman should have an abortion if her pregnancy is uncompitible with her health IV. Abortion has allowed us to choose what we want for ourselves, and it also helps us to follow family planning. A.

New laws that are being developed make it harder and harder for women to deal with the problems of pregnancies. Abortion is a very controversial subject that has been continually argued over for the past few years and probably for many years to come. The main controversy is should abortion be legalized? Before we get to the answer, let’s first define the word abortion. According to Tom Head “Abortion is the international terminology of a pregnancy after conception. It allows women to put an end to their pregnancies, but involves killing the undeveloped embryo or fetus” (1).

This destruction of a fetus or unborn child while the child is still in the mother’s womb can be done by almost anyone from the mother herself to even to abortionist by clinics set up especially for this purpose. Since abortion involves killing a fetus, it is considered as a sensitive subject to discuss, because every person around the world have a different view and opinion about it. As history tells us “Abortion in the United States has been legal in every state since the United States Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, on January 22, 1973” (Lewis 1).

Since then, there have been many debates among the citizens whether the law is right or wrong. There are two sides to this abortion topic the pro-life, which are those who are against abortion, and the pro-choice are those who believe it is the woman’s right to choose if she wants to have an abortion or not. These two groups offer different solutions to a problem. The pro-life solution is to have the child and basically live with it. They believe abortion is not an answer. The pro-choice solution is abortion because of reasons they feel are appropriate.

Although abortion is morally and ethically wrong, should it be legal for victims of rape or incest who have no other alternative? To see the Americans view on abortion, a popular TV channel in the United States did a survey on over 1133 people over the age of 18 in 2004. Generally, 57 percent in this ABCNEWS poll say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 43 percent voted against it. I will point out the argumentative reasons for abortion to stay legalized through out the paper.

Many famous and respected people have talked about abortion, like Mother Teresa who was the winner of Nobel Prize for Peace in 1979. She argues, “If we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people to not kill each other? Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want” (Barbier and Goree 98). Since Mother Teresa was very religious women what she said make sense but I totally disagree with what she said. Killing a fetus is not the same as killing a person.

The word “murder” is often used by pro-lifers to describe abortion. Murder means deliberate and unjustified killing of another person  containing intent. How can anybody see an evil intent in a woman’s decision to interrupt pregnancy if it is a result of rape or incest? A woman cannot bear the thought of having a child that would be a constant reminder of what had happened on such and such a day, such and such number of years ago. She doesn’t want to kill a baby; she wants to interrupt the growth of an embryo so that it will not become a baby. She interrupts potential life. But potential life is just that, potential.

There’s an argument until these days that a fetus is a person that is indistinguishable from the rest of us and that it deserves rights equal to women’s. On this question there is a tremendous spectrum of religious, philosophical, scientific, and medical opinion. It’s been argued for centuries. Fortunately, our society has recognized that each woman must be able to make this decision, based on her own conscience. To impose a law defining a fetus as a person, granting it rights equal to or superior to a woman’s thinking, feeling, conscious human being is arrogant and absurd.

It only serves to diminish women. A fetus is like a body part in women’s body not an individual person and can only be recognized as a person since the day it is born. It is not registered as a citizen in the government’s book and is not even considered as existing person. So killing a fetus can be called as getting rid of a body part. And, it is not the government’s duty to teach the citizens how to love. People learn about love from their parents, from their religion and relatives and society. Government cant build a law based on how it is going to affect the behavior of the citizens.

It is like we can’t have a war because it is not nice to kill people. What if another country attacks us? Are we going to sit and wait until we die? We should protect out country and our selves and the same goes with abortion, we have to protect ourselves if we see harm is coming to us. On the other hand, Abortion is a difficult issue when it is viewed from a religious point of view. On one hand there is the Commandment against murder, which begs the question of whether a fetus is a human or not. There is a passage in the Bible, which deals specifically with the act of causing  woman to abort a pregnancy. In Exodus 21:22-25 we read:  ” And if men struggle and strike a woman with child so that she has a miscarriage, yet there is no further injury, he shall be fined as the woman’s husband may demand of him, and he shall pay as the judges decide. But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise”( New Revised Standard Version, Exodus 21:22). In this passage we find a woman losing her child by being stuck by men who are fighting.

Rather than it being a capital offense, however it is looked as a civil matter, with the father – to – be taking the participants to court for a settlement. But, as we read on, if the woman is killed, a “life for a life,” then the men who killed her shall be killed. Some have claimed that the life for a life part is talking about the baby, but in this passage we also read, “Tooth for a tooth”. Fetuses/babies do not have teeth when they are born. Thus we can see that if the baby is lost, it does not require a death sentence – it is not considered murder. But if the woman is lost, it is considered murder and is punished by death.

I do not want to say that abortion is Biblical, but I just want to show that there can be arguments on both sides and a judgment against people in God’s name should be stopped. As we have seen above every individual have their own opinion on abortion, depending on their religion and beliefs. If the pro- life group doesn’t support abortion they don’t have to do it. The law doesn’t force you to have abortion in any case. So people against abortion due to their religions or beliefs shouldn’t protest against abortion because it is their personal preference. Religious ideology is no foundation for any law.

Freedom of religion is guaranteed to any citizen in the United States, so why would the beliefs and values of one religion mandate actual laws for all citizens? It would be unfair, unjust and immoral. We do not have laws against eating fish, nor do we have laws that declare it is legal to sell one’s daughter, rape someone, or keep a person as slave -all things that are promoted in religious text. There are also few pro-life people that claim women are using abortion as a birth control. By that they mean women are going to be irresponsible and will have unprotected sex since abortion is legal.

This is proven to be untrue by Ms Heather Boonstra. She is a Senior Public Policy Associate in the Guttmacher Institute’s Washington, DC. On the article Abortion in Women’s Lives that she published in 2006 she states, “from time to time the number of women having abortion is decreasing ” (3). Here is here summarized graph. [pic] As we can see in the graph the number of women having abortion has been going down since 1981, which proves that women are using abortion in special cases not as birth control. Other than that, abortion plays a big role in some special cases.

We don’t hear it that often but there is sexual intercourse between two people called incest. In definition “Incest is sexual intercourse between close relatives that is illegal in the jurisdiction where it takes place and is conventionally considered a taboo. The term may apply to sexual activities between: individuals of close ‘blood relationship’; members of the same household; step relatives related by adoption or marriage; and members of the same clan or lineage” (Stritof). Even though it is between families it can be taken as sexual harassment if it is between an adult and an under age.

It is not accepted in out society. People consider it as the nastiest thing that human being would do. If by any chance someone becomes a victim of incest, their family and friends will isolate them for their rest of their lives. Likewise, when a girl is raped, she feels dreadful. The trauma of being raped could break her down and make her depressed and that is only the beginning. After she gets raped, in her own eyes, she has no respect or self-esteem for herself and then comes the embarrassment. Her reputation in the society will be damaged permanently and everyone will look down upon her.

Even her own family’s reputation will be tainted. If she is forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy, the result is unwanted children. After the unwanted baby is born, the childhood that he will get will not be the best one because of how it was originated. At home, the raped woman would not be a good mother and would be cruel to the baby. Therefore, because of this abnormal type of childhood, when the child grows up and becomes a teenager, he will often turn to crime and be involved in gangs and drugs. For example, 40% of African-American kids grow up by a single mother due to unplanned sex or poverty.

And 20% of those kids drop out in middle school (Hanson 141). Once a kid stops going to school he or she have a high chance of doing illegal things in order to get money. They are among society’s most tragic cases, often uncared-for, unloved, brutalized, and abandoned. Those children have a very strong chance of getting hurt or getting arrested or in a worse case scenario, be killed. All this could be prevented if the mother was allowed to get an abortion early on and she would not have to face all the shame and embarrassment for herself and her family. This is not good for children, for families, or for the country.

Children need love and families who want and will care for them. Therefore, women who are raped or victims of incest should not be forced to carry out a pregnancy. Odds are that 1 in 3 women will be victims of sexual violence in her lifetime (Mahkorn and Dolan182). Does that mean that 33% of all women should be forced to carry out a pregnancy from this violation? Those people always don’t tell that they have been in that situation until the woman becomes pregnant and all her relatives find out. The baby they have is going to go through a lot since he is born between two family members.

Isolation, bulling, and it is most possible that he will involve in illegal medicines or drags just to put himself in the mood since he is most of the time unhappy. These are few of the bad things the child will face, as he got older. This poor baby will have a lot of problems just because of his parents made a mistake. Why would their child take the punishment for what his parents did? Abortion is the only choice here. Many would argue that these women could endure the pregnancy, spending nearly a year of her life simply re-living the rape and its effects over and over again, to give up a baby at the end of it for adoption.

However, we all are aware of the fact that there are millions of unwanted children awaiting adoption as we speak who remain unclaimed; in fact, UNICEF estimates that there are 210 million orphans in the world right now. If they have no one willing to be their parent or guardian, why would another baby have a better chance? In other word abortion will help in decreasing world’s population. Similarly, World health organization posted an interesting article about women and pregnancy saying, “Every minute, at least one woman dies from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth – that means 529 000 women a year.

In addition, for every woman who dies in childbirth, around 20 more suffer injury, infection or disease – approximately 10 million women each year” (10). It is shocking that a lot of women die during pregnancy. People against abortion think that a woman must have the baby once she is pregnant, but that is ridiculous. There are many women in a situation that they can’t have a baby. Women have to avoid pregnancy if she has some kind of diseases that gets worse with pregnancy, because it could affect her health or the baby’s health.

For example a breast cancer women-getting chemotherapy should not get pregnant because she does not know the effect of chemotherapy on the outcome for the fetus. In this case if a women gets pregnant accidentally she should think about her health first and her baby’s health second, and have an abortion before the fetus gets older. Most people now agree that if the mother’s life is in danger abortion is acceptable. It seems unreasonable to let both die when one can be saved. There are many other situations in which abortion can be morally justified. One thing is obvious.

These pregnancies were not planned and they are unwanted. Children born to these mothers are “biological accidents”. In my opinion it is sinful to bring innocent and defenseless children into the world when they will not be cared for. All over the globe these are children starving, being raped, dying, being beaten up because they’re unwanted. They suffer abuses from which they never recover. Medical researchers also show that unwanted children whose mothers refused an abortion suffer from serious psychological disturbances throughout their life (Morgentaler, 52).

Another reason why I believe that availability of choice is vital for women is that if a woman decides to have an abortion, she will do anything to end her pregnancy. This is the reality. There is no such thing as a one hundred-per cent effective contraceptive which of course results in unwanted pregnancies. From the illegal days we know many ways in which women aborted themselves. Many women would introduce caustic detergent substances into themselves, producing major burns of the vaginal wall and  systemic poisoning.

Others would insert a tablet of potassium, which led to serious lesions. Number of women tried to dislodge their pregnancies by introducing knitting needles, coat hangers, or other metal or wooden objects into their uteruses. Some women threw themselves down flights of stairs, and some pumped air into the uterus by means of a small pump used to blow up bicycle tires. Illegal abortions were performed by people with no or little medical knowledge, in back rooms, in a non-hygienic environment. All this led to tremendous number of deaths but did not stop the abortions.

Anyone who thinks that outlawing abortion makes abortion go away is a fool. It makes it dangerous and it makes it shameful. Women will always get abortions. And if we are truly concerned about human life and if this is not just a hollow slogan for us we should make abortion safe and clean procedure instead of trying to make women feel guilty. Additionally, making abortion legal can decrease illegal abortion. Let’s look. The following chart was used on the floor of the US Senate during the tumultuous debate on abortion in 1981. It was compiled from official U. S. tatistics. As we can see on the graph, abortion was first legalized on 1967 and we can clearly see that after that year the line started to drop sharply which shows that the death of women due to illegal abortion decreased. Simply, Laws against abortion do not stop abortion; they simply make it less safe. The number of women who get abortions does not change when it goes from being legal to illegal, or vice versa. The only thing that changes is more women die. [pic] Opponents of abortion seem to think that women who choose to have abortions typically do so thoughtlessly.

They do not know that a decision in itself is already agonizing and a very painful thing for women. But can you really understand the issue of abortion unless you have been in the situation of possibly having one? What some people do not seem to understand is that abortion is not an easy way out. This issue concerned with badness, and if there is badness there is bitterness and worseness. Woman herself has to make a decision, on which is which. Many people try to force their beliefs on others and judge them for their actions. These people need to judge themselves before they start to judge others.

There is a question that should be answered. Should government be involved in personal matters such as abortion? In my opinion government should not interfere with citizens personal problems. Having an abortion is the same as having a kidney surgery. Once a doctor tells you in what condition your kidney is, it is your decision to have a surgery depending on what the doctor said. Even your kidney is in the worst condition you still have a choice to stay without medication. That doesn’t consider as a suicide by the law. It also goes the same with abortion.

Would you allow the government to tell you if you could have a kidney transplant or a blood transfusion? Of course not, the fact that we even consider, let alone allow, governments to regulate a medical procedure is both illogical and foolish. Depending on your health, your baby’s health, and your baby’s future you should have the right to decide weather you want to have an abortion or not. Therefore my theory is that people who spend so much time, energy, and money on anti-abortion campaigns should instead spend it on the precious children they say need saving so much—the ones who are alive and parentless.

Imagine if all the funds spent on all those billboards and flyers and campaigns were instead either spent adopting or donating to places that are overrun with orphaned children, perhaps some actual credibility would be given to these people who claim to love children so much. Also, there is the fact of the matter of the more than one million homeless youth in America alone. The number one factor for a child being homeless is physical or sexual abuse at home. Perhaps these child-lovers should step in and care for these already-born children as well. If those people really want to stop abortion, they should turn to methods that do work.

These include comprehensive sex education and safe, affordable contraceptives. Unfortunately, as illogical as it sounds, the people who are most against abortion are also often most against these preventative measures. If they truly wanted to reduce the number of abortions that occur, they would embrace these methods. Additionally, if the Supreme Court ever declared abortion illegal, only the poor will be adversely affected. The rich will purchase a round-trip ticket to one of the European Countries, have an abortion there and return. The poor, do not have enough sometimes even to ay for the bus fare to go downtown. The impact of such a law would be disproportionate. This is in fact what happened before 1973 (before Roe), when abortion was illegal. We must learn from history otherwise we are condemned to repeat it. People who oppose abortion do so usually on religious and moral grounds. They can continue with their moral standards, no one is asking them to have an abortion in the event of rape or incest or some other medical reason. We just ask to be let alone. There is nothing more private to a woman then the right to regulate her own fertility and no one has a right to tell her otherwise.

Not in U. S. A. not in this land of the free which guarantees individual and constitutional rights? Choice is a constitutional right, the Supreme Court says so. Michael Monahan is the author of non-profit organization called the Heritage House and in is article “Illegal Abortion” he says, “I’d still worry that if you forbid abortion, it will just go back to back-alley but butchery and lots of mothers dying. ” (1). I totally agree with him, stopping abortion will be a totally disaster and we will see more death of women due to illegal abortions.

As I mentioned through out the paper, abortion should be the mother and the father choice to do, not the law or the government, because it is important when the mother can have a baby due to health problem, when the baby have no future, when a pregnancy occurs under a circumstances that is not accepted on the society ETC. New laws that are being developed make it harder and harder for women to deal with the problems of pregnancies. If laws were adapted leaving the choice up to the families of the newly conceived, it would make their lives and their choices a lot easier.

My personal belief is that each woman should have a right to decide whether she wants to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. For reasons of women’s right to self-determination, protection of their health, adequate care of children which are born and in order to prevent child abuse and mental disease, easy access to abortion is a must. Most abortions occur because contraception failed, because of a rape or because of a serious medical condition of the mother, which could lead to her death. In these situations abortion is often the only way that prevents the birth of an unwanted child or saves a mothers life.

We have seen that abortion is really important to the society. It has allowed us to choose what we want for ourselves, and it also helps us to follow family planning. We have every right to choose whether we want to have an abortion or not. Religious people don’t support it but since it is their belief and decision they should not force other people to be like them. It has been proven above that all their arguments were not fully true. The reasons why women have abortions vary. It may be a case of rape, physical or psychological condition.

A choice must need to be available to prevent the birth of unwanted children, to avoid damage to the child as well as to safeguard the emotional and physical health of women. Preservation of life seems to be rather a slogan than a genuine goal of the anti-abortion forces; what they really want is control. Control over our behavior and power over women. Abortion is a tough choice and the decision should be a personal one, without interference of government or special interest groups. Losing safe and legal abortion would mean reducing women to childbearing vessels.

It would mean turning our backs on the technology we have, and it will also devalue women as independent human beings. It would bring more meaningless deaths from the illegal and self- induced abortions and more pain for women. Works Cited Barbier, Jean, and Georges Goree. Mother Teresa: The Love of Christ. New York: Harper ; Row, 1982. Print. Boonstra, Heather. Key Questions for Consideration as a New Federal Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative is Implemented. 1st. ed. 13. Washington DC: Guttmacher Policy Review, 2010. Print. Hanson T. , McLanahan, S. and Thomson, E. (1996).

Double Jeopardy: Parental Conflict and Stepfamily Outcomes for Children. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 58(1): 141-154. Print. Head, Tom. “What is Abortion? ” Web. 10 Dec. 2011. Lewis, Jone. “Abortion History” Web. 10 Dec. 2011. Mahkorn ; Dolan, “Sexual Assault & Pregnancy. ” In New Perspectives on Human Abortion, University Publisher of Amer. , 1981, pp. 182-199 Monhan, Michael. Illegal Abortion. Web. Morgentaler, Henry. Abortion and Contraception. 1st ed. Beaufort Books, 1982. Print. Stritof, Bob. Prohibited Marraige. Web. The New Oxford Annotated Bible: With the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books, New Revised Standard Version.

Michael D. Coogan, editor. New York: Oxford UP, 2001. Print. WHO. District Planning Tool for Maternal and Newborn Health Strategy Implementation. 6-13. Print. Bibliography Barbier, Jean, and Georges Goree. Mother Teresa: The Love of Christ. New York: Harper ; Row, 1982. Print. Boonstra, Heather. Key Questions for Consideration as a New Federal Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative is Implemented. 1st. ed. 13. Washington DC: Guttmacher Policy Review, 2010. Print. CNN – Obama: Pro-choice, Not Pro-Abortion Ad [Video]. (2008). 12 Nov. 2011 Hanson T. , McLanahan, S. and Thomson, E. (1996).

Double Jeopardy: Parental Conflict and Stepfamily Outcomes for Children. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 58(1): 141-154. Print. Head, Tom. “What is Abortion? ” Web. 10 Dec. 2011. Lewis, Jone. “Abortion History” Web. 10 Dec. 2011. Mahkorn ; Dolan, “Sexual Assault & Pregnancy. ” In New Perspectives on Human Abortion, University Publisher of Amer. , 1981. Print. Monhan, Michael. Illegal Abortion. Web. Morgentaler, Henry. Abortion and Contraception. 1st ed. Beaufort Books, 1982. Print. Reagan, L. J. When Abortion was a Crime, Women, Medicine, and Law in the United States, 1867-1973.

Univ of California Pr, 1999. Print. Sproul, R. C. Abortion, a Rational Look at an Emotional Issue. Reformation Trust Publishing, 2010. Print. Stritof, Bob. Prohibited Marraige. Web. 24 November 2011. The New Oxford Annotated Bible: With the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books, New Revised Standard Version. Michael D. Coogan, editor. New York: Oxford UP, 2001. Print. WHO. District Planning Tool for Maternal and Newborn Health Strategy Implementation. 6-13. Print. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. “Abortion” Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 22 July 2004. Web. 10 Aug. 2011

This is because, it is mostly true. For example, how does a person become sophisticated or fancy? How does someone become barbaric? How does someone become holy? Of course a sophisticated/fancy person grew up with sophisticated people (I. E. , Mother, Father, Relatives etc.. ) and of course a barbaric person grew up with barbaric people and holy people grew up with other holy people. Imagine how can a fancy person grew up at the “squatters area” given the case that their family has trouble eating three times a day?

Sure, it can be possible. But the odds of it to happen is unfavorable. Getting straight to the point, one of the factors that contributes to the child’s character reflects on how he is raised and his rounding’s. Now, how DOES responsible parenting help produce a successful child? According to the scientific researches, children often follow their parents’ behavior. Which means, that imitation is a fundamental part in the growing process Of a child because it is one Of the natural ways Of learning.

Therefore if you’re a parent and you show him proper etiquette and good manners, the child will grow up into a well behaved individual. Another important influence of good parenting is that it promotes the academic success of students. After leaving pre-school or kindergarten, children approach an entirely new environment, the primary school. They must change their habit of playing whatever they want and whenever they want to an inevitable horrifying fate, which is the responsibility for studying well.

At this very first stage, children integrate their studying method from the elder members in their family, like their mom or dad, when the child sees their mom and dad work hard because of the possibility that they mightn’t brought home some of their work, then the child will try to imitate that and may result to a better study habit, which really affects their results in the long future. All of these would exult in an excellent academic aftereffect. And the last but not the least, children would be healthier in account of their parents’ concern.

The diet of children is mostly prepared by other family members. The way parent control various nutritious elements forms the children’s habit, which can hardly be changed. If they get familiar with a balanced diet, they may enjoy a healthy life style in the future. Besides, a good, loving and responsible parent would explain to their children the large importance of physical exercises and encourage them to do these beneficial things to stay fit and healthy for being lately will benefit them in the long run. After stating all of these, you the reader, what will you do now?

The 19th century was a difficult time for many women and blacks because of the domination of white men over them. The social and economic hardships they faced in day to day life was a constant reminder of this domination. The social ideology in the story “Desiree”s Baby” was powerful and dangerous and held no escape for any character. A woman with small children who lost her husband would face extreme hardships without the support of close family members. One who happened to be down on their luck would not find much sympathy among their peers even with children.

Kate Chopin was one of these individuals who was down on her luck with six children. But fortunately had the support and comfort of her mother for a short period before her mother passed away. A friend advised this mother of six children that writing was a way to solve her problems concerning money and help deal with her grief. Maternal love and all the grief from were to be an attribute to the writing proficiency of this literary artist. This period in Louisiana was not tolerant for mixed ancestry and one found to be non-white would be ostracized from the white community.

There were some whites in Louisiana who was not racist but they would still have to follow a strict code of segregation and social guidelines or risk social or bodily death. Kate Chopin was born fourteen years before slavery was abolished so must have had strong feeling on the subject. She no doubt saw mixed ancestry in the black communities and realized the cause of it. This story crosses the line into the covert world of mixed ancestry and the problems it produced. The racism in the story is not discussed openly but is prudently mixed in with Armand”s atrocious character and his evil soul.

Armand”s evil was deep as he forsakes his loving wife, infant son, and God. The story some proclaim contributed to Chopin”s early success was “Desiree”s Baby” in this story she mixed many feminist emotions from maternal love, to a wife”s love and devotion to her estranged husband. During this period, some found it tolerable to leave a baby on the doorsteps of a family to provide a chance at a better life. This was an important point in the story when the Monsieur found the baby Desiree near the front gate, it would mean that Desiree would probably never be aware of her biological parents ancestry.

The chance a baby with both parents would be dropped off is not logical but was probably a single mother. A single mother knew there was little help to be found and the child would be hard pressed for a descent upbringing socially and economically speaking. Desiree grew into a beautiful and gentle-hearted young woman and soon found a wealthy suitor asking for her hand. This young suitor had known of Desiree”s past but was in love and did not care of this seemingly innocent unknown factor of her past. This suitor, was racist and wretched but the young bride was in love and looked past his flawed character.

The concept of young Armand falling instantly in love after seeing Desiree standing by the gate is a bit suspicious and sounds more like infatuation. The evil in Armand did not come from his parents and the black employees were cheerful when he was growing up so it is an open question concerning his acquired hatred. The blacks were cheerful while his father was alive but was not during Armand”s strict management of the L”Abri. Armand had changed to a kinder man after his marriage and the birth of his son and it may have been the only time in his life he was truly happy.

The death of his mother while living in France when he was eight years old may have had a precarious effect on his character. The way Madame Valmonde described the L”Abri as “a sad looking place, which for many years had not known the gentle presence of a mistress”(1), may have been a hint at Armands evil nature being tied to having no maternal influence during most of his boyhood. Madame Valmonde noticed the baby”s mixed ancestry immediately when she went for a visit, exclaiming out loud at first sight of him “this is not the baby”(2), Desiree thought she was referring to how big the baby had grown.

Madame Valmonde looked closely at the baby and new that it was indeed of mixed ancestry but did not mention it to her daughter, this I believe was her way of hoping for the best. Madame Valmonde was wealthy but knew her influence would not be enough to help if anyone found out the baby was black. This would also mean certain social destruction for Desiree having given birth to a black child. The environment changed quickly on the L” Abri and Desiree was not aware of the circumstances that had changed it. Her husband had recognized that the baby was not white and had turned into his old malicious self and was ignoring his family in vain.

One of La Blanche”s quadroon boys was near the baby when Desiree noticed the resemblance of the skin color between the boy and her baby. Desiree confronted Armand and asked him to explain what the baby”s color meant and how it happened, Armand immediately and harshly accuses Desiree of not being white like the baby. The quadroon boy is one quarter Negro ancestry and so his mother La Blanch is also of mixed ancestry. This is important to know because Armand compares Desiree with that of La Blanch when he tells her she is not white.

Armand was quoted as hearing the baby crying from “as far away as La Blanch”s cabin”(2), the reason he was at the cabin could be he was using La Blanch sexually. This would explain the quadroon boys. The practice of raping a slave or employee in those days was not uncommon. Desiree compares her skin color to that of Armand who is much darker than she is but he is not bothered by this inconsistency in his reasoning. Desiree begged her mother Valmonde for help in explaining to everyone that she is indeed white. Valmonde did not respond to Desiree”s cry for help but just offered a place to stay for Desiree and the baby.

This was a strong blow for Desiree who felt she was now isolated in her fight for justice against Armands unjust allegations. The struggle Desiree was trying to overcome was a losing one and mainly because of the dominance of men over women at the time. Armand did not relent in his persecution of Desiree and the baby. This demented individuals main goal was to crush the soul of Desiree and to punish God for what he feels was his unjust treatment. Desiree finally went to Armand one last time hoping that his psychotic episode would be over but Armand did not deviate telling her he wanted her and the baby to leave.

The Crushed and broken Desiree finally made the fateful decision that there was no other life for her and the baby. This decision led to Desiree”s suicide and the baby”s infanticide alone in the bayou. There would be no social life or chance of a second family for a white woman with a black child during this time period. Armand”s psychotic episode continued and he burnt everything belonging to Desiree and the baby or that reminded him of them. Fear was something Armand did not know because he always had domination over everything around him, but with the baby being black he had social rejection to fear.

It was during this episode that he discovered a letter from his mother to his father that revealed that it was indeed he who was black. God did enact the final revenge with the appearance of the letter. The story touches on several social issues that would not be talked about in specific places and times. The interracial conceiving of children, mans dominance over his wife, and whites dominance over blacks were all depicted in the story. In conclusion, the struggle for women and blacks continue and with changing social attitudes some things are improving for them but hatred and bias will be around for a long time.

Few would deny that it is rather difficult to be a working woman in America, and hardly anywhere else. Part of this difficulty stems from the fact that most women either are mothers or plan to become those in the near future. For mothers, the choice to work is not that straightforward – they have to decide between realizing their potential in professional work and realizing their goal of raising healthy children with well-rounded personality development.

And what makes things worse for many is the absence of reliable child day care in many workplaces. The issue is particularly acute for working mothers whose income is barely enough to compensate for child care. If a woman does not compensate for baby sitting financially, does she have to go out and leave her children alone? For many families, the answer is a clear-cut “no”, not least because husbands, mothers-in-law and other relatives come in with their own cultural assumptions and ideas about how it should be.

A team of researchers from Georgia State University have researched the life-and-work balance in the lives of low-income mothers. Polling women in Columbus and Atlanta, the scientists have found most women to be stressed about their ability to pay for the child care that cost them from $75 to $150 per week (GSU:2). Moreover, in many cases, they were dissatisfied with the quality of care their children received. Many women had to tailor their professional plans to the need to combine work and child care, as well as day care availability.

Two of the respondents in the GSU study “accepted stressful nighttime work schedules so relatives could care for the children while they sleep” (GSU:2). There was also one who retained the job she hated so that she could pay for the care for her child, and another one left the job she enjoyed to care for the baby when the day care price went up. These are important life choices, and women keep making them based on their family situation, or, more specifically, based on the quality of child care available.

Under these conditions, many women are under serious emotional pressure to stay home and attend to their children while simultaneously pressured by the intrinsic desire to take their career chances. The most pathetic is the story of one young mother whose child was born three months early and had to be fed through a tube for a while. Leaving the baby with her grandmother, this woman did not know that the old woman would get tired of the noise the machine made. When the baby had actually stopped breathing, the woman had to rush home from work and take her daughter to the hospital (GSU:2).

This scary example demonstrates exactly what kind of choices women have to make in order to remain both mothers and professionals. With all the discussion about childcare as an important issue for working women, some have raised the question of whether mothers should be granted free care by the state. Sonya Michel asks in her book Children’s Interests/Mothers’ Rights: The Shaping of America’s Child Care Policy: “Why … does universal child care, organized and supported by the government, remain an elusive social good in the United States? ” (Michel 1999:1).

Examining the history of child care in the US, the author arrives at the conclusion that the real reason why this good remains elusive is that the rights of children are placed above women’s rights. As a result, many people believe it to be more important to create a friendly family environment than to provide women with opportunities for self-development. Day care centers originated as pastimes for affluent women in the nineteenth century that were motivated by the desire to take poor and disadvantaged children off the streets rather than make life easier for their poorer sisters.

The woman was to be a mother, and this role was emphasized most often. Against this background, more and more corporations seem to have realized that providing day care for their employees they help to retain talented female workforce and increase stability of their personnel. Day care facilities may soon become the norm in corporate America, something that will hopefully be a sign of progress on the front of women’s issues. Fewer women would have to balance their children with workplace issues to circumvent the limitations imposed by their family status.

On-site facilities that spring up in many corporate headquarters and branches are a sign of the increasing emphasis that employers place on the development of their workforce and commitment to diversity. One of the pioneers in this area was the Convergys Corporation, a customer care and billing services company, that opened a day care center in its Oklahoma City Office as early as December 1998. The office, 7,500 square feet in area, had enough capacity to house over 300 children at a time (Convergys Corporation 1998).

The opening of a new office made a difference in the daily schedules of over 1,100 employees (Convergys Corporation 1998). The company did not go about it alone – instead it partnered with Latchkey Child Services, Inc. , a company specializing in day care services. The professionals that have been in day care services since 1992 have the skills and expertise to deliver. With all the advances, the solutions to the long-term issue of working mothers finding a balance between attending to their kids and following their career path is still a long way ahead.

The day care market does exist in the US, but it is rather unbalanced, a situation that stems primarily from the division of this market into two separate branches: non-profit or government-subsidized care and private facilities. As is to be expected, “there is an excess of demand because tuition fees are set at a level below that of actual costs, while in the uncontrolled sector, fees are determined by supply and demand, and are higher than in the organizations’ centers” (Malka 1990).

A lot of working mothers still cannot afford to pay the “private market” rate, and they cannot get into low-price subsidized care simply because there are not enough slots. Corporate day care centers are still limited in number so that only large corporations, and perhaps mostly those with a pro-women mentality, do have them after all. While in many nations the government has taken control of the situation, in the US child care is still predominantly in private hands. This makes the price of this care adhere to the market rules, and those who cannot afford it are basically on their own.

In the meantime, working mothers have to go to work with an uneasy feeling that something might happen to their child while they are away. In the culture where women have been child-raisers for centuries, making a choice to leave your child in the hands of a strange person is a tough issue. When costs and dubious quality are added to the decision-making process, it becomes only more difficult. Although women are already better off with the proliferation of day care centers, there is still a long way to go to achieve the maximum life-work balance for them.

Bibliography Convergys Corporation.

Convergys Corporation Opens Pilot Day Care Center. 1 December 1998. 4 October 2006 <http://www. convergys. com/news_release. php? y=1998&q=4&newsid=180>. Georgia State University. Child Policy Brief. 4 October 2006 <http://www. gsu. edu/~wwwghp/publications/children/childpolbrf/cpbworkmoms0102. pdf>. Malka, Irit. Day Care Centers and Working Mothers. Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies, Jerusalem, 6 (July 1990). 4 October 2006 <http://www. iasps. org/irit1. htm>. Michel, Sonya. Children’s Interests/Mothers’ Rights: The Shaping of America’s Child Care Policy. New Haven, Conn. : Yale University Press, 1999.

Although households are “supposed” to contain two parents there are ones that contain only one parent. A single parent is a parent who cares for one or more child without physical help of another parent in the house. Though people looked down upon single parenting before, it is now quite common in today’s world. According to the United States Census Bureau the amount of children who live with a single parent has increased to a little more than 30 percent.

Single parenting is a problem to others since children raised under a household of a single parent are two times more likely to end up poor, to give birth outside of marriage, to not graduate from high school, and to have behavioral and psychological problems. It is also said that children living in single parent households are more likely to experience accidents, injuries, and poisonings. Since kids living in single parent homes are more likely to undergo these problems, many people argue that children who live in single parent homes will not grow up properly.

Although kids are more likely to develop those problems, if single parents raise their children properly their children will be able to avoid those problems. Single parents and other non-traditional families are quite capable of raising healthy, well-adjusted children. Those who propose that single parents are not capable of rearing healthy and well-adjusted children have comprehensible reasons. They worry that the children will lack guidance and attention needed since there is only one parent for them to go to.

They also worry that the children will lack gender influence and will need help with relationship problems in the future. At last, they worry that the children will grow up unable being independent and responsible due to their parent “babying” them too much. I believe the reasons why people are against single parent homes are not very reasonable. People propose that children raised by a single parent are not being raised properly. They believe that the child won’t be attended to as often since there is only one parent.

That is where they are wrong, because what is family for, right? Many single parents are able to turn to their parents, siblings or extended family quite often for help. People also argue that the child of a single parent will suffer from lack of gender influence. This is basically saying a child will not understand the role of either a male or the role of a female because of deprivation of the other parent. This argument is invalid since the role models of a single parent child could be uncles, aunties, or friends of the parents.

Children raised from a single parent are able to grow up with the same amount of guidance and attention as a child reared from two parents. Many people argue that children being raised by a single parent will lack those basic essentials. Many think this because single parents often work a full-time job. I believe this claim is invalid but to a certain extent. As long as the parent has contact with family or friends, they, along with the single parent will help guide and support the child throughout their life as long as they are around.

A life example would be a single parent that has to work. They will call their parents to watch their child. The child will then be taken care of by their grandparents. The grandparents will teach the child what is right from wrong (guidance); something the single parent may not have the time to do. They may also be there for the child when the single parent is not. Since many children crave attention, they like showing their parents their accomplishments from school they obtain. Since a single parent is usually too busy to take the time to notice.

By having the grandparents there for the child, the child will more likely be able to receive the attention they wish to receive. Raising a child in a single parent household will not affect the child’s future relationships. Others argue against this because when children are young, they fall in love with their parent of the opposite sex. For the boys it is the Oedipus complex and for girls it is the Electra complex. Boys later on, end up looking for personality traits which their mother hold and choose a girl based upon those traits; for girls they undergo the same affair though they do so based off of their fathers traits.

Some children unable to learn this develop relationship problems since they do not know what traits they are searching for in a partner. This task is extremely difficult for single parents to succeed in doing though it is not impossible. A parent can carry out this troublesome task by taking on both roles of the parents; as a father and as a mother. Single parenting holds the ability to teach independence and responsibility indirectly to their child. Others think differently, they assume these children won’t be ready for the real world due to the amount of “babying” while growing up.

This of course is incorrect because studies show that children of single parents are more independent that those with two parents. Being there only one parent, they are unable to do everything on their own; this moderately forces their child to learn to do tasks the parent has not the time to handle, on their own and at a younger age. An example, if a parent is running late for work, their child may have to make their own meal since their mother or their father does not have the time to do so.

Individual parents and other non-traditional families are completely able to rear normal, balanced offspring. Single parent children are fully capable of having guidance and attention, learning roles of the opposite gender, and being independent as children with two parents. If you do not believe single parents are able to raise normal children, you are thinking wrong because this type of family makes up about 30 percent of the United States population; this number continues to escalate.

Just Mom and the Kids More than one fourth of all children in the United States live with only one parent (Healthy Children). Single mothers and their children face a variety of financial and emotional complications on a day-to-day basis. Though single motherhood can be just as satisfying as sharing these experiences with a partner, there are unique difficulties to its situation. Single Motherhood is when a mother is raising a child without the support of spouse. Around half of today’s mothers will spend some time as a sole custodial parent (Legal Momentum).

Statistics say around forty-five percent of single mothers have never been married (Legal Momentum). That meaner fifty-five percent of single motherhood is due to divorce, abandonment, or death of a husband. The reasons why American women are increasingly becoming single mothers are teen pregnancy, father disappearances, adoption and the biggest of all, divorce (Webster University). Of three people interviewed two single motherhood were due to divorced and one was by choice of never being married. Single motherhood is less ideal and leads to extreme amounts of stress.

Epidemiological rivers show that single mothers have low levels of self-satisfaction and high levels of anxiety and depression compared to other mothers (Social Science Computing Cooperative). Not being able to provide for your child, going through a divorce or death of a husband and dealing with the behavior of the kids are causes of a single mother’s stress. When explaining how she copes with her situation Veronica Williams says, “It was rough, really rough, trying to manage all they have going on and fitting it in day to day. It was stressful at times, but I took it one day at time did what I could o” (Williams).

The depression and stress also can come from all the household tasks, everyday Jobs, and errands the mothers have to take care of on a day-to-day basis. Their responsibilities are overwhelming for one person. Single mothers have a great amount of weight on their shoulders with finances, house keeping, and parenting with no help from a spouse. Veronica Williams, a single mother of two young children, explains the biggest financial burden in her family is childcare. “Finding child care for my children is a financial burden it can be so expensive, but it’s something I need to o in order to work.

I have to get money to raise them” (Williams). Having a spouse there to help maintain finances for the family would take a load of weight off of the single mother. A mother has to perform responsibilities that would traditionally be a father’s Job, for example; taking out the trash, caring for the law, home repairs and vehicle maintenance. They often look to their children for help around the house. When asked about how her children helped around the house Veronica said, “They’re much younger so they can’t do much, but keep their toys picked up.

House keeping ill be a little easier when they can help though”(Williams). Looking to the children for assistance around the house is not an option for single mothers when the children are so young. As the children get a little older they become more helpful and responsible. Christine Wilson, is a teacher and single mother of a fifteen year old daughter, when asked about managing housekeeping she explains, “My daughter is able to complete household chores like washing the dishes, dusting the furniture, well when money is involved” (Wilson).

Since the 20th Century children with single others were sent out to work earlier than those who had both parent’s in their lives (Gordon, Pitied but Not Entitled: Single Mothers and the History of Welfare, 1890-1935). As the child gets older the single mothers have a little more help around the house, but whom do they have to turn to for help with parenting? Parenting is extremely difficult without a spouse to turn to for advice, assistance, and comfort.

Children of single mothers have a significant amount of responsibilities to take care of, because their mothers especially need help when she is raising the child (Kids Health). The extra responsibilities can bring a lot of stress to the child in that situation. These stressful situations can lead children to sleeping disorders, self- esteem issues, and drug and alcohol abuse. Its only normal for children of single mothers to think about what it would be like if their parent’s were still together.

Single parent children are more likely to have emotional or behavioral problems. Children of single mothers also are more likely to have low self esteem, use drugs or commit suicide (Wisconsin Fathers). Single motherhood often leads to excessive tress and responsibilities for the children in the family. When asked about how she coped with her parent’s divorce eighteen-year-old student, Miracle Hawkins said “l was young so I didn’t really understand it, but now it doesn’t really bother me. It’s probably better that they aren’t together anyway.

It’s actually a life lesson for me. My mother shows me how to be a strong, independent woman and I feel like if they were together I wouldn’t have realized some of the things I know now. It helped me to mature much quicker than friends who aren’t living with single mothers”(Hawkins) Having only one parent in a child’s life forces them to grow up much faster than a child whose parent’s are still together. Through observations, interviews, and research it is concluded that single motherhood is a difficult task not only for the mother, but for their children as well.

The financial and emotional problems and responsibilities it comes with are overwhelming for a mother with children. Single motherhood is not an ideal lifestyle, however it is manageable for hard working and dedicated mothers and their kids. While at the Thurman Brisbane Center I observed some of these hard working and dedicated mothers and their children. The Thurman Brisbane Homeless Center provides a variety of programs and services to assist individuals and families who are homeless.

Since 2000, Thurman Brisbane Center has provided residential services to more than 15,000 individual men, women and children (Thurman Brisbane Center). When volunteering at the Thurman Brisbane Homeless Shelter I organized arts and crafts, instructed, talked, and played games with the children living in the shelter. I realized the children learned differently depending on their family situation. I deiced that certain children were more independent, than others. The weekend of Valentine’s Day the project of the day was to make Valentine’s Day cards for their family.

There were two little girls, Gabby and Raven, they both were five years old, but had very different personalities. I then wondered if that had anything to do with the parenting of the children. Gabby was very quite and shy and didn’t ask for any help when we were creating our Valentine’s Day cards. She colored a picture of her mother, her brother and herself. Gabby spelled everything without any help from me. Ere family. She asked for help drawing hearts on her card and she asked me to help her with spelling when she was writing in her card.

After talking and observing the girls a little more, I learned Gabby mother was a single mother living at the shelter with only Gabby and her older son. I then learned that Raven’s father, mother, and older sister were also living at the shelter with her. These two girls helped me to understand that family situations can make huge impact on personality of a child. Working at the Thurman Brisbane Homeless Center has helped me improved my rebel communication skills, develop more patience, and it taught me valuable Job skills.

Before I started working at the homeless shelter, I considered myself a shy person when communicating with people I didn’t know. After volunteering for approximately five months, I became more comfortable and confident with myself and with communicating with others. When you learn and practice patience you don’t get as irritated, stressed or overwhelmed. Working with young kids requires tons of patience, mainly because you have to explain and re-explain, especially when they re young, Just so they can understand. After working with the kids on a few Sundays I have developed that patience I needed.

I learned how to talk in a tone that they would listen to and understand and how to take deep breaths to try to relax when I found myself getting impatient. Working at the shelter taught me valuable Job skills such as, commitment, organization, and active listening. I committed myself to working at the shelter for two hours every other Sunday. Although, there were times when I would have preferred to go to the mall or go to the movies, I knew I had mad a commitment to myself and the staff at the shelter to be there. I was determined to finish the Job I started.

Another Job skill I improved on at the Thurman Brisbane Center was organization and creativity; I had to come up with ideas for arts and crafts to do with the children at the shelter. Each day we brought entertaining activities for them to do and often awarded them with candy, popcorn, and other prizes for the good awesome art projects they created. The activities and projects were based on the upcoming holidays or the current season. In October, for Halloween time the kids and I made fake ghost and decorated bags for them to put their trick-or-treating candy.

During Thanksgiving holiday we made colorful turkeys out of brown paper bags and construction paper. In January our projects consisted of designing snowmen, snowflakes and mittens all out of construction paper. As mentioned before during the month of February we made Valentine’s Day cards for families and friends. Before going to the Thurman Brisbane shelter I had to assure I was prepared and organized to make sure the day went smooth. Based on my lesson I had to make sure I had all he art supplies and prizes I would need for the day.

I had to focus on what they kids liked, didn’t like, and their personalities so I could try to relate to them better and develop relationships with them. I now realize that active listening skills are critical when working with anybody. Working at the Thurman Brisbane Center was very beneficial not only did it help with my research project, but it also helped me to develop mentally. Seeing the grins on the kids faces when we came with activities and candy for them made volunteering worthwhile. I was glad to have made a difference in the lives of the children.

Teen pregnancy is a thing that ultimately alters a teens future forever with negative side effects, In the United States, 2. 800 teenagers become pregnant each day. When I graduated in 201 1; out of al the girls I graduated with 10 of those girls have had babies. one of them Just had her second baby this year. think more needs to be done to make girls realize that it affects their future, their children’s, the baby’s tamer. and other tamily members. I couldn’t Imagine having a baby at this age. My cousin became a teen mom at the age of 19 with her long time boyfriend.

But, I see the struggle they have to make money to pay the bills. He works two jobs to support her and their child because child care Is so expensive. They don’t regret having their son, but they regret dropping out of college. Teen pregnancy Is the leading reason teen girls drop out of school. More than half of teen mothers never graduate. of them earn a college degree by the time their 30. About d quarter of them have d second child within two years of their first. Teenage girls in relationships with older boys are more likely to become pregnant, han a teenage girl In a relationship with a boy her own age.

Poverty Is associated with increased rates of teen pregnancy. 80 % of teen mothers have to go on welfare at some point due to less than one third of teen mothers receive no child support. Girls whose mother or older sister gave birth as d teen are more likely to get pregnant themselves. Teenage parents who can rely on family and community support, social services and child care are more likely to continue with their education and get a higher paying job as they progress with their education. In the united States alone 820. 00 teens become pregnant each year.

Birth rate in the United States is the highest in the developed world and teen abortion rate Is also higi-n In 2006, the united States teen rate rose for the first time in fourteen years. Canada also trended towards a steady decline for both 15- 17 and older 18 – 19 teens in the period of 1992 – 2002. Majority of teenage mothers are not married to the tatner ot their children. Babies born to teenagers are at risk for neglect and abuse because their young mothers ere uncertain about their roles and may be frustrated by the constant emand of care taking.

Children of teen mothers are more likely to be born prematurely with low birth weight. They’re at a higher risk tor intellectual, language, socio – emotional, development disabilities and behavioural issues are increased. Children of teen mothers have a 31 % incidence of depression and a 25% risk of parenthood as a teen. Mothers are less likely to stimulate their infant through affectionate behaviours such as touch, smile, smiling and verbal communication or to be sensltlve and accepting their needs.

Teen parents don’t have the Intellectual or erformance in children of teenage mother also been noted with many of them being more likely to fail to graduate high school, be held back a grade level or score low on standardised test. As a son born, to a young woman in her teens is three times more likely to spend time in prison. Only 20% of teen fathers marry the mother of their child, many teen mothers continue to live at home with their parents. Teen fathers may continue a relationship with the babys mother but its common the relationship to end and when it does many fathers don’t have much interaction with their children.

Teen dads are less likely to earn a high school diploma; the failure to graduate can be due to finical pressure resulting form having a baby to take care of. Despite the stereotype, there is increasing evidence that teen fathers want to be (and are) involved with their children, though this involvement may not always include financial support. Young fathers are more likely to have economic and employment challenges and are more often economically disadvantaged than adult fathers. A large percentage of fathers involved in teen pregnancies are 20 years or older.

Teen pregnancy and motherhood can influence younger siblings. One study found that younger sisters of teen mothers were less likely to emphasise the importance of education and employment. Younger brothers too, were found to be more tolerant of non- martial and early births in addition to being more susceptible to high risk behaviours. Many programs available for teen moms are based on income. If the teen mom’s parents earn above the minimum income, the teen may be denied services which leaves the burden of the costs on the parents.

Teen pregnancy has a negative affect on their children, the teen mothers, and teen fathers. More needs to be done to prevent teen pregnancy more education and guidance from parents. Also, more needs to be done to help teens who become pregnant and the teen fathers. I don’t think theirs enough done for teen dads. With more support groups, financial help, helping with them (teen moms and fathers) graduating and getting their diploma. They shouldn’t be shamed because they become pregnant at a young age, they should get the opportunity to graduate and have a better life for them and their child.