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.