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HeaHh Damages of Too Early
Sex
births that weaken family
lines.
C
hildbearing is becoming
increasingly concentrated
among teenage mothers in
many nations. In the United
States more than 50 percent
of out-of-wedlock births are
to women less than 20 years
of age. Too early pregnancy
and/ or illegitimacy greatly
impact health and social
problems.
individuals, mostly young
persons, are maimed, injured
or sterilized each year by
these diseases, especially by
syphilis, gonorrhea and
herpes. These diseases
infect fefuses or newborn
infants, causing blindness,
deafness, brain or nervous
system damage and death.
mothers are estimated to be
twice that of children born to
mothers more than 20.
" Young mothers are not
producing healthy babies, · '
said Dr. Joan Guildemeister,
a professor of human
development at Howard
University in Washington,
O.C. "We are seeing a
generation of kids starting
with many strikes against
them."
A direct connection
between early coitus and
cervical cancer has been
noted by physicians since
the turn of the century. lt has
been determined that a
woman having multiple sex
partners during the 15- to
17-year-old age bracket
increases the risk of having
cervical cancer.
Other serious
consequences of sexual
permissiveness are sexually
transmitted diseases and the
serious health problems they
cause. Many thousands of
A girl 's nutritional
requirements are also
greatest in her teenage
years. A young teenage
mother's own growth needs
compete
with the fetus for
whatever nutrition is
available. Health authorities
warn that many teenage
mothers have poor
nutritional habits,
aggravating the problem
even more.
Prematurity and low birth
weight are also more
frequent among babies of
teenage mothers. These
conditions reduce an infant 's
resistance to infection and, in
turn, cause more frequent
infant illnesses and deaths.
Teen mothers also have
increased birth delivery
problems.
A baby born to a mother
under the age of 16 is three
times more likely to die in the
first year of lile than a baby
born to a woman in her 20s,
according to U.S.
government health statistics.
The physical and
emotional immaturity of
teenage mothers often
means they are less likely to
seek early prenatal care. All
of these problems contribute
to higher rates of detective
Some unmarried teenage
girls have idealized that a
baby will give them the love
and affection they lack in life.
But the reality is rarely as
bright as they imagine.
Many adolescent girls
have little understanding of
normal infant behavior and
needs. They have little
tolerance for frustration or
the demands little children
make. The consequence,
report health authorities, is
that many young mothers
mistreat a baby out of sheer
ignorance or frustration.
Child abuse and neglect are
frequent among them.
As a consequence there is
an elevated risk of brain and
neurological disorders in
babies of teenage mothers.
Such occurrences in these
unmarried women. Last year, 37
percent, or more than one out of
every three babies, born in the city
were born out of wedlock.
That ratio, triple what it was 20
years ago, alarms New York City
planners.
It
means more thousands
of individuals will be added to
already overburdened welfare roles.
But despite this social assistance,
the majority of these families and
children are destined to lead lives
of poverty and destitution.
These children will have an
extremely hard time of properly
educating themselves, of finding
suitable work and assuming adult
responsibilities. Many will be bur–
deos on social agencies for the rest
of their lives. And they, in turn,
having no other role model, will
likely perpetuate their experience
in their children.
Authorities in sorne states estí–
mate each illegitimate child on
their welfare roles drains more than
$100,000 during the child's life on
assistance.
"It
[illegitimacy] begins to
transform the ambiance of the city
April 1985
itself," says Eleanor Holmes Nor–
ton, a former New York City
Human Rights Commissioner and
now a university law professor.
"The city's most basic building–
block institution, the family, is not
functioning so as to guarantee a
decent start in life to children."
Sorne minority sections of New
York City have illegitimacy rates
much higher than city average. The
central Harlem health district
reports 80 percent of babies are
being born out of wedlock. In the
Bronx, the figure is more than 55
percent.
Baltimore and Newark have even
higher average city illegitimacy
rates. In 1981, these two cities had
the highest U .S. illegitimacy
rates-both nearly 60 percent of
births.
In the United States, nearly one
third of babies born to white teen–
agers and around 80 percent born
to black teenagers were born out of
wedlock.
Black Crisis
The decline of the poorer American
black family because of family
breakdown, economic discrimina–
tion and illegitimacy is particularly
severe.
The Plain Truth
must
address this serious crisis in an
effort to help young black men and
women, and others of all back–
grounds, avoid repeating serious
mistakes.
This formerly taboo subject of
high illegitimacy rates among
blacks is now being openly
addressed in forums by black lead–
ers. "It's the most serious long–
term crisis in the black community
in my judgment," said one welfare
leader. Divorce, desertion and ille–
gitimacy have hit this segment of
society hard. In 1940, around 15
percent of black children were born
out of wedlock. In 1965, the figure
was 24 percent. Today 56 percent
of black children are born out of
wedlock. Nearly half, 47 percent,
of black families are headed by
women without husbands.
In Washington, D.C., the illegit–
ifnacy figure for blacks is 65 per–
cent; in Chicago, it is 70 percent.
Says New York's former Com-
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