this post was submitted on 21 Apr 2026
1674 points (99.6% liked)
Political Memes
11704 readers
3056 users here now
Welcome to politcal memes!
These are our rules:
1) Be civil
Jokes are okay, but don’t intentionally harass or disturb any member of our community. Sexism, racism and bigotry are not allowed. Good faith argumentation only. No posts discouraging people to vote or shaming people for voting.
2) No misinformation
Don’t post any intentional misinformation. When asked by mods, provide sources for any claims you make.
3) Posts should be memes
Random pictures do not qualify as memes. Relevance to politics is required.
4) No bots, spam or self-promotion
Follow instance rules, ask for your bot to be allowed on this community.
5) No AI generated content.
Content posted must not be created by AI with the intent to mimic the style of existing images
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Not that it changes anything in the women’s right to abortion, but a 14 or even a 12 years old boyfriend can get a 12 years old pregnant.
Well that's fucking bleak.
Kinda stands to reason that the vast majority of child pregnancies are the result of inappropriate sexual contact, but it is still alarming to see the numbers pointing out HOW inappropriate.
Yeah it's really bleak. That's why I don't like seeing such casual whataboutism when it comes to young girls and their sexual activity.
It's very "not all men"
I don't put much stock in this data.
First, it is 32 to 37 years out of date. Social norms have shifted drastically. At the time of these studies, The Cosby Show was the highest rated show on TV.
Second:
The majority of these 1980s/1990s cases were 19-year-old "teenagers" and their 20-year-old partners. The mean age of motherhood in the 1970s was only 20.2 years. As many girls below that age were becoming mothers as women above that age. (That puts the mean age of conception at 19.5 years, making teenage pregnancy the norm)
Motherhood age rose slightly through the 1990s, and jumped in the early 2000s. It's currently 27.5 years and rising fast.
Third:
The "unwanted" criterion might be doing a lot of work here. It might be including only a tiny percentage of all pregnancies. The greater the age difference, the more likely the experience was "unwanted". This criterion might be capturing 100% of pregnancies with >10 year difference, but only 5% of pregnancies with <2 year difference. The overwhelming majority of the aforementioned 19/20 families aren't being counted.
It's reasonable to say that it was bleak. It is not reasonable to say that it is bleak. This historical data does not reflect current trends.
Nothing is stopping you from posting actual data instead of just whining that this is too old.
https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R45184
12 year olds still being raped and impregnated is bleak.
Contraception use has thankfully made teen pregnancies decline, but sexual activity remains relatively steady.
Regardless, the majority of 12 year olds who find themselves pregnant are victims.
Indeed. However, the cited data doesn't tell us anything about child rape. Sexual activity between two adolescents is not statutory rape. This is the overwhelming majority of cases.
Majority of rape and sexual assault aren't going to appear in hard numbers like this because of lack of reporting.
You can pretend like underage pregnancies are all from consensual underage sex, but I'm not going to close my eyes to truths of the world.
Also adult men having sex with underage girls IS rape.
Thats the conclusion which should've been included within op's statement. Honestly such an outdated statistic is a poor indication of the status quo - because it isn't the status quo. OP may imply various repeated statements however it doesn't magically supplement the facts and statistics which exist today.
Within the research scene, OPs statement would be framed as misinformation due to its age - this factor alone is responsible here, so there is no room in twisting the logic here.
There isn't a more current study on this topic that I could reasonably find.
Just because it has decreased doesn't mean that rape and sexual assaults don't happen to teenagers and children anymore.
Yet again, you're missing the point. This conclusion was already stated by countless of oppositions to your argument.
The main point is the fact that your research is invalid to explain the status quo - its the logic thats the problem not that "rape has somehow evaporated from existence".
The point of the post is that a pregnant 12 year old is most likely a rape victim and finding the rapist should take precedence over preventing a child from getting an abortion.
The data in question does not support that point.
That doesn't mean the point is invalid.
Including this particular data detracts from this point. Either find a point that this data does support, or don't use this particular data.
Note that the first 36% (43% if you include the implied 7% where the father is more than two years younger) includes age pairings like 19/22, and many people would include something like 18/24 as somewhat acceptable. Underage pregnancies should really be tracked separately from teenage pregnancies.
Also, teenage pregnancy and violent crime are both way down from 1989 (crime more than 50% and teenage pregnancy about 75%). I wonder if/how those two factors would affect the numbers in a modern study.
I tried poking around for more recent comprehensive studies, but there wasn't as much out there.
Teen pregnancy is lower for sure thanks in large part to access to contraception. It's not because sexual activity and rape went down.
I'm still confident based on all the available information that the majority of 12 year olds that find themselves pregnant are victims of men.
It's not only because of that, but it seems highly likely that that contributed. Impregnating children is, as you noted, almost always a sex crime, and sex crime is down by half. It's certainly possible that the entire decrease was in crimes against adults and AMAB children, but that seems unlikely.
Absolutely, but 12-year-olds are not teenagers. The study you cited doesn't actually include anyone who gives birth at 12. That's one more reason to track underage pregnancies separately. 18/19-year-olds skew the numbers because they're above the age of consent, and girls below 13 don't contribute.
Yep, my ex's first husband first knocked her up in his 20s when she was 17. You'll never guess which one decades later supports accessible abortion for teenagers…
Yes, but his consternation is not about a "baby" dying, but that a woman or girl could make a choice behind the back of her husband, father, or boyfriend. That's why he frames it the way he does.
I agree. OP is greatly over generalizing the situation here. But as the other commenter said (even if the evidence is on the older less reliable side): the majority of cases are of older adults raping 12 year olds.
The composition fallacy doesn't necessarily make the statement invalid, as considering the aim of the first person, that aim directly corresponds to the conclusion of second person and has a link with the supplied evidence.