Pregnant teens are more vulnerable to physical abuse and poverty and often times have limited education.
760,000
Number of girls who
get pregnant each year
in the United States
Three out of 10
Number of young
women who become
pregnant at least once
before age 20.7
80 percent
Percentage of
pregnancies to
unmarried teens
More than half
Number of teen
pregnancies that
end in birth
14 percent
Number of
high school-aged males
who report causing at
least one pregnancy
$9 billion
The amount teen
pregnancy costs the
United States annually
Source: The National Campaign
To Prevent Teen and
Unwanted Pregnancy
Inside
•Money, addiction are the leading factors in many Oklahoma women's murders, study shows Page 15A
Understanding patterns
The study represents the first of a multi-layered effort to better understand the chronology of violence and teen pregnancy. So far, researchers have been able to link the two adolescent trends to three specific patterns:
•First of all, pregnancy in itself increases the likelihood of being a victim of violence. About 4 to 8 percent of all pregnancies are affected by partner violence. Teens are even three times more likely to be victimized while pregnant.
•Secondly, study co-author Elizabeth Miller points out that violence also makes it more likely those teenagers will become pregnant. "They are beaten at home, neglected in the home and then get with the boyfriend who is also abusive,” Miller said. "What we found is these clusters of vulnerability to violence.”
•The third link between teen pregnancy and violence is a tendency of teenage girls to become pregnant upon leaving an abusive relationship.
At age 14, the girl was routinely choked when she refused to have sex with the boy she was dating.
By age 15, she was pregnant by a 24-year-old man who claimed to be 20.
Another 15-year-old girl had classmates at an Oklahoma City high school who brought guns to school just for protection.
"It's too much. We're kids. We don't need to see all this,” she said. "Gangs. Violence. Dudes beating up on females. It's all too much.”
A year ago, the same girl lost a friend to gun violence. Her young friend was shot dead while standing next to her.
Now, at age 15, the girl is seven months pregnant.
Researchers say there is a direct link between exposure to violence and teen pregnancy.
A study released by the University of California-Davis indicates that teenage girls in abusive relationships are being coerced into "getting pregnant” by those abusive partners at an alarming rate.
"In addition to forced sexual relations, a refusal to use condoms, now it is even going a further step,” said Elizabeth Miller, a pediatrician and co-author of the study, which targeted about 60 sexually-active girls with abusive partners in a poor, urban Boston neighborhood. Many of the girls reported to be involved with gang-affiliated partners. About 43 percent of the girls interviewed reported their partners were actively trying to impregnate them either by manipulating condom use, sabotaging birth control use or explicitly telling them they were trying to get them pregnant.
"We were floored by what these girls told us. You think of forced sex as an aspect of abusive relationships, but this is taking reproductive control
