When Children Want Children. An Inside Look at the Crisis of Teenage Parenthood

More about the book

When "Washington Post" reporter Leon Dash set out to investigate the ever-lowering age of teenage parents, he expected to find ignorance about birth control and reproduction at the heart of the problem. But what he discovered shocked him: these pregnancies were almost always intentional. For teenagers who face an otherwise dreary and empty future, the birth of a baby often symbolizes a tangible achievement. "When Children Want Children" exposes bitter truths about sex education, school counseling, and health clinics. It is an eloquent and painful story of our continuing failure to deal with an ongoing urban crisis.