How important is pregnancy prevention to young people?

Adults are usually the ones who talk about the importance of preventing teen pregnancy. But ultimately, sexually active young people in heterosexual relationships are the ones making decisions about whether or not to use a contraceptive method.

For the ones who had a comprehensive sex ed. program, they know about the methods of birth control and how to access them. So why are some of those same students still having unplanned pregnancies? When I started my career as a sexuality health educator teaching in an under served community with a high rate of teen pregnancies, I asked myself this question often. I learned that sexually active youth decide where they stand on this issue mostly through their actions.

Is the couple consistently using condoms? Does the young woman do whatever it takes to get to a family planning health center to obtain a different or additional method? Do they take time to learn how to use the method? If the answer is "yes", than obviously pregnancy prevention is important to that young couple. But for other teens who are not consistently practicing safe sex, perhaps they do not view the possibility of an unplanned pregnancy as a bad thing.

Something else to take into consideration is the culture of the community and whether teens having babies is accepted or not. Where I grew up, teen pregnancy was not condoned and I could count on one hand the number of pregnant teens who had babies as high school students. However, in communities where a lot of young people are having kids, being a young parent is not necessarily viewed as being negative.

Ultimately, it's up to teens to decide how important it is for them to prevent pregnancy. As adults, the best thing we can do is have open and honest conversations with them about the risk of having unprotected sex and be there to support them if an unplanned pregnancy occurs.