Pregnancy is a more significant situation that homeless adolescent women face because the prevalence is greater than for teens living in a home. Pregnancy has a lasting effect on homeless women by interfering with their ambitions in life to travel, achieve an education, and their ability to care for themselves decreases. Some adolescent women will not practice safe sex thinking pregnancy will improve relationships even though they are unable to commit to a partner. Sex is used as a tool to survive; they will trade sex for shelter and likely have multiple sex partners. “10-25% of street youth report having traded sex for money, drugs, or other commodities for survival, and the incidence of this high risk behavior is particularly high among girls.”
