Teen Pregnancy: Who Is Accountable?
Weekly Column by Dr Muriel Newman
Many people were shocked by the recent revelation
that 28 boys, all under the age of 16 – the youngest being
12 years old – had fathered children and were being charged
child support.
While many might think it fair to
force these boys to contribute to the financial support of
their child, the situation does raise a number of important
issues.
The first question is who should be
responsible for financial support when a young girl becomes
pregnant and decides to keep her baby – should it be the
girl, her family, the boy, his family, or the taxpayer?
In the past, most young girls who became pregnant
adopted their babies out – in some cases, to their wider
family. Just 30 years ago, more than 3,000 babies were
offered up for adoption. Today that number has dropped to
only a few hundred.
Before the advent of the
Domestic Purposes Benefit, in the Seventies, working women
pregnant out of wedlock were supported by the state during
their last stages of pregnancy and first three months after
the baby’s birth – or six months if she was breastfeeding.
If she wasn’t working, her family supported her. As a
result, the number of such births remained low for decades.
However, the liberalisation of divorce, medical
advancements increasing women’s control over their
fertility, and the introduction of the DPB meant that,
during the late 1960s and early 1970s, the trend began to
change.
The DPB was originally designed to provide
an income for women, with children, to enable them to leave
violent relationships. It then became widely available to
women who chose to separate or to have a baby on their own –
the only requirements were that she didn’t work, didn’t
marry and didn’t allow the father contact with his child for
more than 40 percent of the time. As a result, New Zealand
now leads the OECD in single parent families, fatherlessness
and teenage pregnancy.
The reason so many people
are seriously concerned about teenage pregnancy is that, in
public policy, you get what you pay for. The DPB has a lot
to offer a teenage girl without a qualification: a secure
income that pays more than a job, more money for each
additional child and, if she wants to go on to university,
free education.
Most teenage girls who receive the DPB
stay on it for years. Now, as a result of the Government’s
recent changes – supported by United Future – allowing
mothers to receive the benefit until her youngest child is
18, a teenage mother could well be on that benefit for life.
Parenting is arguably life’s most important
challenge. Government research shows children can be
seriously disadvantaged if their parent/s take on that
responsibility without emotional and financial stability.
Children from unstable, benefit-led families all too often
end up in state care, contributing to the seven percent
annual growth in the number of children taken from their
families by the Department of Child, Youth and Family – up
from 2,500 in 1996 to 4,500 last year.
I believe
that our present system, which encourages vulnerable young
girls – who are often from unstable fatherless families, and
are little more than children themselves – to have and keep
their babies, is doing the baby, the girl, and society a
huge disservice; and that is not to mention the enormous
cost to the taxpayer.
I would like to see such pregnant girls counselled more strongly about the choice of adopting the baby out – especially since open adoption, which is inclusive of birth parents, is now very common.
In
some countries the problem has been tackled by returning the
responsibility for teenage mothers back to parents. The
girl’s parents are required to support her, helped by the
father of the child, and his parents if he is still
dependent. If the girl’s family is unable or unwilling to
support her, then state care is provided in a special hostel
where she receives adult supervision and assistance.
The young mother must also complete her schooling,
since a mother’s lack of education is recognised as a key
risk factor for children. Education is also a key to her
doing well in the workforce, as she will be expected to
become the breadwinner for her family.
Instead of
the present system, which sees so many New Zealand babies
raised in situations where they are at serious disadvantage
and risk, we must discourage early parenting until our young
people have finished their education and are in stable
relationships. Further, we should look to emulate the
approach above, ensuring that young people understand the
need to take personal responsibility for their fertility,
and that they appreciate the consequences of parenthood –
including the significant financial liabilities.