13 million children are born by women under the age of 20 each year, but lately researchers have been noticing that teen birth rates have been dropping lickety- split these past few years, curious as to why the sudden change researchers scrambled to find some reasons why. Some of the reason contain, believe it or not, MTV’s 16 and Pregnant, showing teens what it is really like to have a child of your own art such a young age and the abortion laws that have been placed throughout the United States. Currently the teen birth rate is at a record low for the United States,dropping below 30 births per 1,000 teen pregnancies.

Although there has been bickering and controversy about whether MTV’s production of “16 and Pregnant” and “Teen Mom” would increase teen birth rate or even motivate young adolescents to even get pregnant and start families at a young age, but has this show really criticized or glorified teen pregnancy? Due to the decrease, it has done more help than harm. This MTV television show has so far been remarkably effective, more so than the teaching of sexual education in schools, condom and safe sex promotion and pledging abstinence had been in recent years. Studies show that teen birthrate rapidly sunk by 6% in 2009 after MTV had first aired “16 and Pregnant.” The reality of this show has been proving to adolescents that raising a child in the teenage years is astoundingly harder than it originally had sounded. MTV had shared the burdens and the hardships that come with balancing between caring for another human being, school work and grades along with sleep and social events.

There have also recently been abortion laws placed. In some states around the United States forbid abortion after a certain amount of weeks into the pregnancy, most commonly 20 weeks, and some abortion clinics have also been closing down, taking Texas as an example. “If the state is passing regulations that are similar or equivalent to those that all other medical facilities provide, and some [clinics] close because they’re not meeting standards that other medical facilities have to meet, I don’t see a problem with that,” said Dan McConchie, vice president for government affairs at Americans United for Life, Abortion is more complicated than it used to be, nowadays they have waiting periods (in 26 states), parental involvement (38 states). People are becoming more aware and starting to realize the troubles and guilt’s of preforming an abortion. Teen pregnancy is predicted to continue to simmer down and decrease throughout the upcoming years.