Reference no: EM131026116

Read the article "Babies Having Babies" by Kristin Luker and answer the following question-

QUESTIONS

1. What evidence does Luker present to indicate that teenage pregnancy was actually on the decline during the 1970s, '80s, and '90s when it was con-structed as a problem of epidemic proportions, while premarital sex, abor-tion, and out-of-wedlock births were on the rise and yet not similarly constructed as epidemics?

2. Among the issues listed in Question 1, why was teenage pregnancy con-structed as the key social problem for the public to be alarmed about and for policymakers to address? Answer by discussing how, in Luker's words, the epidemic of teenage pregnancy seemed to "explain a number of dis-maying social phenomena, such as spreading signs of poverty, persistent racial inequalities, illegitimacy, freer sexual mores, and new family structures".

3. How is seeing teenage pregnancy as a leading explanation for poverty consistent with the political ideology that has been prevalent in the United States since the early 1980s?

4. What is the case Luker makes in arguing that the core problem that needs to be addressed is not the problem constructed by claims makers teenage pregnancy but instead poverty itself?