At the individual level, nonmarital pregnancies to teens have a variety of consequences for teens and their children.

For the teen, pregnancy is associated with serious health and emotional problems, poverty, low education, and single parenthood.

Pregnant adolescents are at increased risk for complications including low birth weight, infant mortality,[1] preterm delivery,[2] urinary tract infections, pyelonephritis, preeclampsia,[1] and abortion.[3] Unmarried teens (but not married teens) who become mothers are at increased risk for depressive symptoms later in life.[4]

• Nonmarital teen births often begin and end in poverty for the adolescent mother and her child/children. A majority (83%) of teen pregnancies, regardless of the outcome (birth, abortion, miscarriage), occur in economically disadvantaged areas.[5] According to a 1998 report, nearly one-third of all teen mothers and one-half of unmarried teen mothers go on welfare within one year of giving birth.[6] Almost a third (28%) of teen mothers are poor in their 20s and 30s, and 7% remain poor throughout the rest of their lives.[7]

• In general, teen mothers have much lower levels of educational attainment than other women, which severely limit their career options and sharply increase their likelihood of economic dependency. Only 70% of teen mothers complete high school or earn a GED, and far fewer–1.5%–earn a college degree by the age of 30.[8]

• The risk that a female will become a single parent is particularly high under 20 years of age. 97% of all births to girls under 15 are nonmarital and 80% of births to 15- to 19-year-olds are nonmarital.[9]