Teen Pregnancy–it takes two
Has anyone else been reading the articles on teen pregnancy in the Express-News? They’ve profiled two teenage girls and their situations, one was only 13 when she became pregnant. Reading the articles, one thing stuck out like a sore thumb, where were the fathers of these babies?
Beyond being named, the articles really didn’t say anything about them. It’s almost as if teenage girls become pregnant on their own. There is absolutely no discussion as to why these girls decided to have sex. There is no discussion about how one of the boy’s jealousy could be an indicator of future abuse. There is no discussion about why the one teenage boy’s mother thought it was a good idea for the girl to move in with him.
Where is the story about these boys and the poor decisions they made? In both of the stories, the mothers of the teens saw their daughters repeating the mistakes they had made and tried to prevent it from happening. Where are the stories about the fathers of the teen boys?
Obviously girls have to have access to information on sex and birth control and be able to say no. They are the ones who are going to become pregnant. But I can’t help but think that as long as we don’t consider the boy’s role beyond being a “sperm donor”, teenage pregnancy is going to be a problem for a long time coming.
Filed under: Birth control, Teenage pregnancy
