SEXUAL RELATIONSHIPS: CONSIDERABLE PROBLEM
It is clear that today young people accept pre-marital sexual intercourse as normal social behaviour. If chastity is no longer believed to be a virtue, society has an obligation to reduce the consequences of the sexual behaviour of young people. These are unwanted, unwelcome pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease, especially gonorrhoea and non-specific urethritis.
Investigations in most areas of the world have shown that in many developed nations adolescent pregnancy and childbirth is causing a considerable problem. Among Western nations the experience of the U.S.A. can be taken as an example. Dr Frederick Jaffe, President of the Alan Guttmacher Institute, pointed out at a conference held in 1976 that ‘the nation is experiencing an epidemic of adolescent pregnancy and childbearing’. Adolescent pregnancy rates are higher in the U.S.A. than in many less-developed countries. One million American teenagers (about 10 per cent of all adolescent girls) ‘become pregnant each year, sixty per cent give birth and go on to face the adverse health, social and economic consequences associated with early childbearing’. Over half of those who gave birth became pregnant out of wedlock. Investigations showed that two-thirds of the pregnancies and one-half of the births were not intended. Half of the sexually active adolescents surveyed reported that they had not used contraception the last time they had sexual intercourse. Over 300,000 teenagers obtain abortions for unintended pregnancies each year in the U.S.A. Dr Jaffe believes that the situation will only be changed with better education and with more adequate service programmes to provide contraceptives to sexually active teenagers.
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