Teen Pregnancy Facts

If it is possible to remove the emotional variables that affect a teen's experience with pregnancy, the following facts, collected from a report by the Guttmacher Institute in 2010 and one published in 2007 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are what is left.

It is rightly assumed the majority of teenage pregnancies are unplanned. And although one in 10 births are to a teen-aged woman, 67 percent of pregnant teens are women between the ages of 18 and 19. The younger a woman is when she becomes the pregnant, the more likely she is to have a small child before her due date, according to the Mayo Clinic website. Teens will need special prenatal attention and should pay attention to their nutrition in particular. According to the available research, teens are also more likely to have a miscarriage. Only a little over half of teen pregnancy ends in birth, a third end in abortion and the remainder end in miscarriage.

In addition to about 80 percent of teen pregnancies being unplanned, teens' future plans also fall to the wayside and educational goals, such as attending college, is less likely to be achieved by teens who get pregnant.

The Guttmacher Institute reported in 2010 that New Mexico had the highest pregnancy rate in America. It was followed by Nevada, Arizona, Texas and Mississippi, respectively.