• teenage parents are more likely than their
peers to live in poverty and be
unemployed
• the death rate for the babies of teenage
mothers is 60 per cent higher than that for
babies of older mothers
• for half of those under 16 and a third of
those aged 16 and 17 teenage pregnancy
leads to abortion
• 90 per cent of teenage mothers have their
babies outside marriage, and
relationships started in the teenage years
have at least a 50 per cent chance of
breaking down.
These needs might also have consequences
for the state through:
• the social costs of teenage pregnancy for
the individual, the family and the state
• the wider economic costs in preventing
young women from entering the
workforce.