Teen Pregnancy & Abortion The harsh facts & the opinions Brittany Berg Nicole Sanger

Lets fill you in! Teen pregnancies are becoming more and more common, yet as technology develops there are more and more alternatives. These include clinical and hospital abortions and adoption, preventing unsafe “back alley” abortions. There are many factors that can influence a teen’s decision as to whether to have an abortion or not, such as religion, family beliefs, and the opinions of others.

Thesis Most Catholic high school students (aged 14-17) disagree with the notion of (teenage) abortion and teen pregnancy at such a young age.

Action plan We will investigate and research statistical studies (secondary sources) based on teen pregnancies in Canada between the ages of 15 and 19 As we cannot ask direct questions to our fellow peers, (ex. “Have you ever had an abortion?”) we will gather data relating to their opinions on the issue and what goes on in high school We will then relay that data to our peers, presenting it using the different mathematical tools and procedures we have learned throughout the semester

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Throughout history abortions have caused much controversy dealing with ethics and morality. During the 1820’s, abortions were banned as people felt they were ruining the traditions of child bearing which mothers were entitled to carry out. However, in the early 1900’s they were still happening, just less frequently. The procedures for abortions were very dangerous to the health of the women and needed to be stopped. As time progressed, technology developed and abortion became less dangerous. Abortions finally became legal in the 1970’s as there was an outstanding demand for them. As there were more abortions being performed, more people became concerned. Violent protestors began to emerge, fighting for either “pro-life” (no abortions) or “pro-choice” (the ability to have an abortion). There are many factors a teenaged girl must contemplate when making the decision to have a baby, or have an abortion.

Sampling Technique Cluster Random Sampling - The population of high school students is automatically divided into different groups (grade, class) and from there we randomly chose two classes of each grade to sample

Bias Our group avoided sampling bias by surveying two classes of each grade. As the population for our thesis is all high school students, we felt that this accurately gathered the opinions of a wide variety of students We avoided non-response bias by making sure each survey handed out was returned to us We avoided household bias by surveying exactly 50 girls and 50 boys We did not manage to avoid response bias, due to the fact that the surveys were confidential. Some students did not answer truthfully or made a joke of the survey, however nothing can be done about that. We then surveyed the appropriate students to make up for the data lost

Question #1 – Are you male or female? Grade 9 17 7 Grade 10 8 14 Grade 11 10 Grade 12 15 Totals 50 This graph simply shows the gender distribution among the different grades

Question #2 – How old are you? This graph demonstrates a weak positive correlation

Question #3 – Are you interested in having children? Yes No Grade 9 ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| |||| Grade 10 ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| | || Grade 11 |||| Grade 12 ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| | Totals 92 8

This proves our first thesis point which states that most Catholic high school student want children of their own.

Question #4 – If you are interested in having children, how many would you like? Number of children desired 1 2 3 4 other Grade 9 13 7 10 14 5 11 6 12 16 8 Totals 57 26 Evidently, most Catholic High School students would prefer to have 2 children

 This graph shows the number of children students in each grade would prefer. Mean: (1x6) + (2x57) + (3x26) + (4x5) + (6) = 6 + 114 + 108 + 20 + 6 = 234/100 = 2.34 Median: 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5+, 5+, 5+, 5+, 5+, 5+ = 2 Mode: 2

Standard Deviation Mean=2.34 Number of children desired 1 2 3 4 5+ Frequency 6 57 26 5

Question #5 – Do you agree with the notion of abortion? This pie chart shows that 63/100 people that we surveyed favoured the option to disagree with abortion. Therefore the remaining respondents chose to agree with abortion. Also, this proves the second part of our thesis which states that most Catholic high school students disagree with abortion

Tree Diagram - Opinions on the notion of abortion

Question #6 (Rank the following in order of priority, 1 being the highest and 5 the least important.) What do you feel is the most influential, if making a decision towards abortion is needed? Males Order of importance (1 being the highest) Family Beliefs Media Influence Religion Personal views and beliefs Friends and significant others (1) 19 7 10 9 (2) 8 11 4 (3) 2 16 12 (4) 5 13 6 (5) This graph tells us that 38% (19/50) of the males surveyed believed that the most important factor in deciding to have an abortion is one’s family beliefs.

Females Order of importance (1 being the highest) Family Beliefs Media Influence Religion Personal views and beliefs Friends and significant others (1) 5 8 2 10 3 (2) 6 (3) 1 7 (4) 11 (5) 15 This graph shows that 20% (10/50) of the females surveyed believe that the most important factor in deciding whether or not to have an abortion is their own personal beliefs. 5! = 5x4x3x2x1 =120 Permutations Since there are 5 different factors that can influence a teenagers decision on abortion, there are 120 different ways that they can be arranged.

N/A - + N\A Family Beliefs Media Influence Religion Personal views and beliefs Friends and significant others N/A - + N\A

Question #7 – Are you satisfied with the laws concerning abortion? Male Female These graphs demonstrate the opinions of males and females throughout high school on the subject of abortion laws in Canada

Adding Matrices Very Satisfied Satisfied Dissatisfied Undecided Male Female

Question #8 – How do you feel about teen pregnancy? This is important because more than half of the sample (52%) strongly disagree with abortion. Previous slides proved that 92% of the student body surveyed wished to have children. We can conclude that most teenagers in our high school will not risk getting pregnant (having sex) at a young age. Since they wish to have children, we can assume they will wait until they are older and ready for a child. Grade 9 Grade 10 Grade 11 Grade 12 Agree 2 1 Don't care 13 10 8 11 Strongly disagree 12 15

Venn Diagram N(C U D) = n(c) n(D) – n(C ∩ D) = 94 + 48 – 42 = 100

Secondary Sources

We have gathered our primary data from student surveys that we created We have gathered our primary data from student surveys that we created. We analyzed the data gathered and from that we concluded with the previous results We then gathered information about abortions themselves from different websites

Stats Canada Information The above diagram represents the percent of overall teenage pregnancies in 2000 that ended in abortion (in Canada) In Ontario, 57% of pregnancies in teenaged girls 15-19 years old end in abortion

Stats Canada Information <- This graph compares Canadian teenage pregnancies with those of the United states

CONCLUSION: Throughout this investigation we explored data relating to teenage pregnancies in Canada over a longitudinal study. We focused mainly on pregnancies resulting in abortions and inquired about the opinions and views of high school students. After studying a hundred surveys we discovered that 63% of students starting from grades 9 to 12, were against abortion. Therefore high school students are aware of the consequences that come with pregnancy and the right choice to make.