My Modern Modest Proposal: Teen Pregnancy Epidemic | Teen Ink

My Modern Modest Proposal: Teen Pregnancy Epidemic

February 13, 2017
By avery.mann BRONZE, ROSEVILLE, California
avery.mann BRONZE, ROSEVILLE, California
2 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Teenage Pregnancy has been a growing trend over the past decade, that is inevitably ruining teenagers lives and causing stress that could otherwise be avoided. 2/5 teen American girls will get pregnant at least once before age 20, in that only 40% of teen mothers graduate with a high school diploma (Centers for disease Control and Prevention). We should not waste our time creating unnecessary classes students may not pay attention to, but create a solution that can completely combat teenage pregnancy and stop it in it’s tracks.  As of March 1, 2016, all states are somehow involved in sex education for public schoolchildren (National Conference of State). This education is a huge waste of time and money in classes, as 47% of high school students reported having sexual intercourse regardless (ReCapp). No teenage girl needs to deal with the unwanted stress of a child, and no parent wants to be a grandparent so young. I have a simple proposal to fix these issues and stop any teenage pregnancy from this point forward.


The solution to teenage pregnancy epidemic is sterilization. I propose that when a female hits puberty she undergoes a minor procedure to extract all of her eggs to be frozen until adulthood.  These eggs can be stored in frozen tanks until the female is an adult capable of responsibility for a child. This will be a government mandated service, regulated to ensure the stop of Pregnancy. Teenagers are bound to have sex. In fact, Teenage boys are now losing their virginities at younger ages, and having unprotected sex all the time according to a video published on the onion. It is the human nature of attraction, and we can not stop children from having sex, especially boys who are now having more and more sex daily (The onion). The only way to ensure unwanted pregnancies do not occur is to take away the factor that creates pregnancy in the first place. There needs to be reform so that these young girls do not get pregnant and these young boys are free to follow their feelings and hormones without fear of fertilization. Adults can stop worrying about their children having sex, and kids can have sex without worry about getting pregnant.


Mass sterilization has been a common practice in numerous cultures for centuries. For example in India, “nearly 3 million boys and more than 6 million girls were married before age 14, and were having many children. To break the cycle, India urged a practice no country had tried before: mass sterilization” (Washington Post). India was able to take the issue of unwanted population by completely exterminating it. Sterilizating a woman, even temporarily until adulthood, is the only sure way to prevent pregnancies. Children can not be trusted with the responsibility of safe sex, so eliminating the responsibility will be the only way to keep our kids from having kids. India was not the only country to perform sterilization. Our very own home country of America was known for use of sterilization in the early 1900’s. If we have used this technique in the past to prevent unwanted pregnancies, why can’t we bring it back in confidence of the success of the solution.


It is argued that this proposed solution could be less efficient than teaching proper sexual education in schools and encouraging teenagers to have safe sex. Teaching kids not to have sex is like teaching a new born baby to go to the bathroom in the toilet on its own. It will not happen until the baby matures. A teenager will never be capable of having the self control or responsible factors to keep them from getting pregnant, so we must come up with alternate solutions, such as sterilization, in order to solve the problem. We did this with baby diapers, it will work with teenagers and pregnancy. There is no education class or support mechanism that will encourage teens to have safe safe, or practice abstinence, so we need to take matters into our own hands.


This proposal of freezing a female’s eggs will be the most simple and effective way of curing this pregnancy epidemic. Teenagers can live without fear of getting pregnant, and adults can relax knowing their children are safe from a potential roadblock on their future path. Lets eliminate the percentages of teen pregnancies, and leave raising children to responsible adults with this seamless proposal of temporary sterilization.


The author's comments:

I recently read Jonathon Swift's, Modest Proposal and was inspired to write my own satirical comment on a more modern issue. 


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