In an hour, 100 teens in America will find out that they are pregnant.

In December 5, 2007, the National Center for Health Statistics released preliminary 2006 birth data, which showed that for the first time in 15 years, the teen birth rate has increased. The rate rose from 40.5 births per 1,000 females aged 15-19 in 2005 to 41.9 births per 1,000 in 2006–a 3 percent increase. ( www.teenpregnancy.org )

Half of teens have never thought about how a pregnancy would affect their lives. (www.stayteen.org)

The start of the show started out with the statistic that within the hour of watching that show, 100 young girls in America will discover that they are pregnant. That is outrageous.  Then 10 girls introduced themselves.  One girl was 16 and 7 months pregnant.  One was 15 and 6 months pregnant.  Another 13 and ten weeks pregnant.  The girls continued to introduce themselves and there were 14, 15, and 16 year old girls who each wanted to have a baby.  The rest were 13 and four months pregnant, 17 and eight months pregnant, 16 and pregnant with her second,  and a 17 year old, pregnant three times.

I am honestly not sure how I feel about this.  I mean, whether it surprised me or not.  I know there are tons of young girls out there trying, and tons that didn’t plan to have the baby.  Maybe it’s just the fact that I didn’t know it was this extreme.  I just didn’t know really what to think.  All I know is that what these girls had to say is extremely, there is no other way to put it, stupid.  Most of them didn’t even have legitimate reasons for wanting to have baby.  Three of them said that they wanted babies because of the “baby bump” and the fact that  Jamie Lynn Spears, little sister of Britney Spears, had one at the age of 16.  A lot of them didn’t even look distressed, to say the least.  I almost felt as if the show was giving pregnant teens a bad name because not all of us are like those girls.  Although, it wasn’t a very smart decision that I made, it definitely wasn’t planned, and I definitely didn’t handle the situation the way some of these girls are, and I doubt I am going to make the same mistake twice, or even THREE times, again.  But then again, even though I feel that this might have given pregnant teens a bad representation, we need to know what is out there, and what irrational thoughts so many of these young girls are really thinking, feeling, and experiencing.

Before introducing the girls, Tyra shared a quick story about 17 young teen girls in Massachusetts that made a “pregnancy pact” to get pregnant.  I just wanted to mention this since I posted something on it a few months back, here.  There are two youtube videos provided.  I haven’t changed my mind about it, and I still wish there was something I could do.  I think that is just crazy.  They were having sex with anybody they could just to get pregnant.

Aside from all that, the first girl that was interviewed honestly showed a lack of intelligence from her speech, reasoning, and past experiences, that would make somebody think that she wouldn’t want another baby.  This girl was 16 years old.  She really, truly wanted to have a baby of her own.  I understand some girls feeling like they want a baby, because they might have a lack of attention or love or affection from the people around them.   I did an essay on teen pregnancy, at the very beginning of the semester and one of the articles did state this as well.  I understand along with wanting to feel loved and accepted, some might feel that a baby would be the solution and love them as their mom, unconditionally.  After I became pregnant, and I was stuck between keeping my baby and adoption, I thought, maybe my baby would be the one that loved me unconditionally, no matter what, more than anybody else.  That could be understandable, but that was my heart.  Not my head.  I wasn’t thinking about everything that came with the baby.  Now, back to the 16 year old…  She previously had TWO abortions and one miscarriage.  (400 dollars per abortion.  That is 800 dollars to kill an innocent baby, from your own stupidity.) She had her last abortion one month before going onto the show.  She wasn’t even acting like it was devastating, more just like a form of birth control.  She did say she cried for days, but she wasn’t as emotional as someone would think somebody who just had two abortions would be.  Especially for somebody who’s boyfriend forced her.  She did say she contemplated keeping her baby, but her boyfriend pressured her to have the abortion and paid for half of it.  I know exactly how it feels, to have the baby’s father pressure you and offer to pay for an abortion, but it really made me not want to make that decision even more.  It shows a lack of responsibility from the father.  So, furthermore, you would think that she wouldn’t want to stay with him, right?  Wrong.  Before her second abortion, he dumped her, and this brings her to her main reason for wanting a baby.  She thinks this fourth time of being pregnant will bring him back.  She said she was in love with her EX boyfriend and that this baby would bring him back and strengthen the bond between them.  She even stated that “He doesn’t want a baby now or even IN THE FUTURE,” yet she still wants to be with him, and thinks this is the solution.  Another crazy part of her reasoning was that “Jamie Lynn just had a baby, so why can’t I?”  Jamie Lynn is very different.  Jamie Lynn and her older sister are worth millions and millions of dollars.  They are set for life, and so are their babies.  Doesn’t mean she is suitable to raise a baby so young, but I can guarantee that Jamie Lynn is very different from this young girl, and wanting a baby bump and later a baby just because a celebrity has one, is definitely not the right way or reasoning to have a baby.

Girls born to teen mothers are more likely to be teen mothers themselves. Boys born to teen moms are more likely to end up in prison. (www.dosomething.org)

Another girl interviewed was already eight months pregnant.  I really felt bad for this girl, because some of the things she was faced with were similar to some of the things I was as well.  Not everything, but some.  Especially the fact that this was a total shock, and not planned.  She was only 15 years old and wasn’t “sexually active.” It was only her second time with this boy; the only boy she had ever been with.  This girl was on the verge of tears even before she was starting to be interviewed and right up until the very end.  I honestly wanted to cry.  I felt awful.  This baby wasn’t on purpose, or planned, or anything.  The only reason she started having sex was because her 16 year old boyfriend at the time told her that he loved her and that he was saying everything was going to be okay and they can use protection.  When she found out she was pregnant, she told him but he had moved to another state already.  She said, “It was really really hard when I found out that i was pregnant.”  He claimed he would be there but now he is starting to say the baby isn’t his.  He is starting to blame it on one of his old friends in their old town.  I thought her whole situation was just very, very sad.  I just couldn’t ever imagine being pregnant at seventeen, almost eighteen, much less at fifteen.

64% of teens are having sex and 1 in 5 of those teens want to be teen moms. ( www.tyrashow.com )

Another 16 year old girl interviewed was seven months pregnant.  She got pregnant because she wanted to and was “looking for a guy to go out and have a baby with.”  She thought she would just get on welfare and introduced some type of program her state legally offers that provides legal aid and a full paid apartment.  She would still be able to go to school and take care of her baby.  In her mind this was all great because she “wouldn’t have any rules to follow because her mom wouldn’t be there.”  I thought that was sort of ridiculous.  I just felt bad that she had to go through that hard route just to realize that what she did was not smart.  Take a look at what she said.  “…But now because I’m pregnant and I’m going through it, and its not color coded like it is on TV, I see how hard it is to be pregnant.  I feel everything that goes on, you have to, you know, get blood taken every couple of months and take pills…and its not easy like everybody puts it out to be.  It’s hard.  It’s a lot of money you have to put in.  I wouldn’t have gotten pregnant AT ALL!”

Two out of three teen mothers never finish high school. ( www.thenc.org )

Now…this is crazy.  A fourteen year old girl wants a baby because she loves babies, she’s always around them, and wants a baby shower!  She wants a baby with her 15 year old boyfriend who she has been dating for TWO MONTHS.  He says he would stick around if she got pregnant, and she thinks he would marry her.  It was shocking because when asked how much money she thinks he would have to make in order to support a baby for the first year, she replied with “thousands.”  When asked how many thousand she said “seven.”  He does lawn work.  This young girl said that she had protected sex “most of the time” with 3 boys at age 14, which was the age when she lost her virginity.  She’s repeatedly having unprotected sex with her 15 year old bf to have a baby…purposely.

Six in 10 teens, who’ve had sex by 18, wish they had waited longer. (www.stayteen.org)

One really tragic story was about a 17 year old girl who was pregnant three times already.  She started having sex at 14, and had an abortion the first time because the dad wasn’t around and denied the child.  This is where she started to go into tears.  She just had another baby and kept him.  She says that that baby “is her world.”  As for her third baby, she didn’t use protection and didn’t think she could get pregnant again.  She ended up giving the baby up for adoption.  I don’t think this was smart at all.  AT all. She even said that she has had protected sex one time since the adoption of her last child.  I would think that somebody would learn after experiencing that…But, I definitely have sympathy for her, emotion wise.  I could not imagine having an abortion, then having to turn right around and give my child up for adoption.  There is just no way I could cope with that.  I don’t think anybody should have to go through something like that.

One in three American girls becomes pregnant at least once by age 20. (www.thenc.org)

A sexually active teen who does not use contraceptives has a 90% chance of becoming pregnant within a year. (www.dosomething.org)

After these several girls had been interviewed and shared their stories, the two girls, 14 and 16 who wanted to desperately have a baby mostly agreed that they didn’t want one anymore.  Not fully, but they seemed more hesitant, which was shocking, because I would have thought they would have totally been scared and totally completely changed their outlook and opinions.  The fourteen year old with the lawn mowing boyfriend said that if she had a baby she still thinks everything would be okay.  She thinks she would be fine and would be able to take care of it.  She believed her friends would still be there to support her.  As for protection, she THINKS she is going to try to use it, but she’s not going to keep trying on purpose to have a baby.  The second girl, with the two abortions stated that, “I’m having doubts, and I’m thinking twice about it, because it’s not a game, it’s serious.  And I’m looking at people that have gone through it and I don’t want to go through that.”

Every year, more than one million teens in the US get pregnant. (www.tyrashow.com)

I think this has got to be the longest I have ever written and the most time i have spent on anything.  I just really saw a lot in this show.  I think teens should not have to go through this experience that so many of us are going through.  I feel bad for some of these girls and it just amazes me how many girls out there want to get pregnant, as young as they are.  My sister is 11.  Some of these girls were sexually active already at the age of 12.  That is insane.  I couldn’t imagine my little sister having sex in a year, and potentially getting pregnant in 2 or 3.  Most young girls at that age are even on birth control.  That is so sad, but that is what it has come to.  There is no other way.  We are going to do what we want to do.  We aren’t usually thinking straight, most of the time.  I just hope that there is something I can do, and hopefully this entry can help girls and even guys to think twice before having sex.  And if they absolutely have to, use protection.  Get on birth control.  Use condoms.  Be safe.  Be responsible.  I am really fortunate for this situation to turn out the way it has and I have gained so much from it, but I definitely would never wish this on anybody, and this is definitely not the route I planned in order to get to this point in my life.  It has been the hardest thing, again, that I have ever, ever had to go through.  I am having to make so many adult decisions that I wouldn’t have had to be making or be making period.  All I want to say is, think twice, and be smart.