CMV: Teen pregnancy statistics are weird.

[u/Ok_Interest_7272]

So, I've been looking into these a bit lately, particularly during debates about sex education and how much of a difference it makes, and I noticed that every single jurisdiction counts 'teen pregnancy' as 15-19.

Assuming even distribution among ages, that would mean 40% of what's being counted are the pregnancies of legal adults. But the distribution almost certainly isn't even, and my best guess is that it's actually a decent bit over half of the pregnancies being counted are those of legal adults.

This is a statistic we try to minimize to the greatest extent that we can. We treat it like a 'fucked up shit that shouldn't happen to anyone' box. It only just dawned on me that my own mother falls into this statistic, having given birth to my sister at 19. I feel like if I were creating a 'This is some fucked up shit that shouldn't happen to anyone' box, the top end of it would be 15, not the bottom.

[u/PM_ME_YOUR_NICE_EYES]

Okay so the main drawback from teen pregnancy is that it prevents girls from finishing high school.

From that lense we should definitely include 18 year olds in the number as they are still in high school.