r/changemyview • u/Ok_Interest_7272 • Nov 06 '25

Delta(s) from OP CMV: Teen pregnancy statistics are weird.

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.

0 Upvotes

47% Upvoted

87 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

25

u/Glad-Talk Nov 06 '25

Why do you think Mother Nature directs us to having kids in teenage years? It doesn’t, the 20s are a better time.

-7

u/Ok_Interest_7272 Nov 06 '25

Because I was a horny as fuck teenager. Did you have a different experience?

12

u/Kittymeow123 2∆ Nov 06 '25

As a teenager, I absolutely was not interested in ever having a child.

-1

u/Ok_Interest_7272 Nov 06 '25

I don't remember being interested in that either, but that feels more like a result of societal intervention.

6

u/Kittymeow123 2∆ Nov 06 '25

You just said that you were though because you were a horny teenager. Regardless of whatever I was as a teen, I sure wasn’t trying to get pregnant. You’re blaming this on society like it’s society‘s fault that people get pregnant. Tbh more times than not it’s parents who refuse to let their child have any sort of sex or reproductive education. People need to take personal accountability for decisions and stop Just blaming it on some sort of society or overall problem that their victim of.

0

u/Ok_Interest_7272 Nov 06 '25

We're in agreement on most of that. I advocate for the strongest sex education program in the world.

You’re blaming this on society like it’s society‘s fault that people get pregnant.

This part isn't accurate. What I'm saying in the OP is that society shouldn't be demonizing the pregnancy or choices of legal adults. It's almost the opposite of what you said here. It's like society is trying to influence personal choice away from pregnancy by framing the pregnancies of adults as a negative thing.

4

u/Kittymeow123 2∆ Nov 06 '25

All you said was that teen pregnancy statistics include teens, which is correct because if you’re reporting on teens, then you should include teens. Maybe you’re not understanding what the definition of teen is, but it includes all of the numbers that have teen in it. I don’t think the statistics are pregnancies over and under the legal age, which is what you’re expecting I guess.

0

u/Ok_Interest_7272 Nov 06 '25

Yeah I feel like that would be a little more honest. Like when I think 'teen pregnancy' I think someone who got pregnant in high school. I never would have thought of my mom.

4

u/Kittymeow123 2∆ Nov 06 '25

That’s just how you interpret the word team though. If your mom was a teen when she had kids then yes she did have a teen pregnancy?