Adoption Over Abortion

The key to raising teenagers is being able to relate to them while maintaining their respect. You know like OGs run their crews; cool enough to chill and break bread on some occasions, but can at any moment give an order or reprimand and in turn be received and obeyed. But before this tangent gets any longer I'm gonna cut it short. I caught an episode of MTV's Teen Mom recently with my oldest clone, and it sparked some interesting thoughts in my head.

For those of you who don't watch this show, MTV has been following several teenagers for about three years, from pregnancy until now. Most of the babies are toddlers now. One group of the teen parents they are following choose to give their baby up for adoption. Now at first glance, I wondered why MTV would continue to include a couple on their show about parenthood who opted for adoption; however it wasn't until I laid down to sleep that night that I saw the brilliance in the controversy.

The rest of the couples on the show are dealing with being young parents, you know, baby mamma drama, child support, absentee fathers, the full gambit. The couple that opted to adopt for the most part are living normal teenage lives. Both are in college and moving forward with their lives. Don't get it twisted though, they are showing the reality of living with that choice is. This young girl periodically has to deal with her mom's outburst of anger in which she calls her "stupid for giving up her grandbaby" along with the bouts of her own guilt she battles. It's this part of the story that struck me the most. I had never really thought about what it must be like for a young girl to have to deal with a parent who second guessed their decision, and from what I see this poor girl is gonna have some permanent psychological damage courtesy of dear old mom.

MTV's obvious attempt to constantly show this couple having the time of their lives though isn't lost on me. It always seems that during the moments when the other couples are experiencing the most drama, the adoption couple is either some where getting engaged or parting it up in some night club. At first I was furious about it. I felt the young girl's story no longer fit. I mean it is called "Teen Mom" and she no longer has a baby. Once I got over myself, I realized that too often young girls take on the responsibility of raising children when they are not ready because their religious convictions won't allow them to consider abortion and their social circles won't allow them to consider adoption.

While I firmly stand behind a woman's right to choose, I know first hand what it feels like to wrestle with that very decision, and I know women who wish they could go back and swap the -bor- for a -dop- in their choices. If MTV's portrayal of this young girl's life encourages another young lady to follow suit, they may end up doing more to quell the problems of teen parenting and poverty than any government program ever has.

When a teenager gets pregnant I think it is important to remind them that while you do have the right to have an abortion, you have other options...

...Hate It or Love It; Either Way You Felt Something