There is an assertion by some that teen pregnancy and teen motherhood have been somehow glorified by the announcement of Bristol Palin’s pregnancy and the support that she has received from her family along with teen/tween TV star Jamie Lynn Spears making the choice to keep her baby. While in both of these cases, the teens have had the family support and financial backing that would enable them to raise a child, that’s not always the case and, that’s causing some concern.

(source). . . front-line professionals see a starkly different reality involving poverty, lost opportunities and a cost to taxpayers in the billions of dollars annually.

At minimum, the public cost of births to teens 17 and younger is $7.6 billion per year, according to research presented Thursday at a national forum in Chicago. The calculation includes both the lower taxes that these often impoverished families contribute and the extra social services they require.

“Teen births do have substantial, widespread negative effects, especially for the children of teen mothers,” said University of Delaware economist Saul Hoffman, who compiled the estimate.

“The children are more likely to be in foster care, less likely to graduate from high school,” he said. “The daughters are more likely to have teen births themselves, the sons are more likely to be incarcerated.”

There are more than 400,000 teen births annually in the United States, most of them to unmarried mothers on welfare, according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.

Those who are on the front lines of efforts to reduce and prevent teen pregnancy are finding that the two high-profile and in the news teen pregnancies - along with the teen pregnancy depicted in the movie Juno - idealize teen pregnancy in a way that is not often seen. Because teen mothers are often forced to drop out of school and because many do not have the financial support that they need, there is some concern that teens who haven’t thought things through will make choices that lead them down a far more difficult path.

In other words, critics of high-profile teen pregnancies are concerned that they are going to see that it’s possible to be a teenage mom and that there are few challenges along the way. The aren’t looking at the probability that they will have to get a job and be forced to juggle responsibilities for years to come.

And it’s not just those who are concerned; some women who became mothers while they were teens are expressing some frustration about the simplicity that these teen pregnancies seem to say that the process of transitioning to motherhood will be:

(source)“It’s been glorified all over the place,” said Evelyn Rodriguez, 34, a New Yorker from a low-income background who gave birth to a son at 15 and now, after more than a decade of juggling jobs and classes, is on the verge of earning a college degree.

“People who don’t have the money and great support, they say, ‘Oh, wow, they’re doing it — it’s cool,’” said Rodriguez, referring to Spears and Palin. “But it’s not cool. I’ve been through it. It’s a job. I don’t appreciate what’s going on out there making it seem so beautiful, when it’s not.”