Friday, May 29, 2009

16 & Pregnant

It's Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month for a few more days, but in June MTV will premiere it's latest addition for young viewers, a series called 16 & Pregnant. It is in the reality television genre and follows six young people, their parents, family and some partners as they cope with continuing with their pregnancy and choosing to parent or choosing to adopt.

I wonder why MTV chose not to have a series called Its My Choice & Constitutional Right (or something similar) about young women of all racial and ethnic backgrounds who choose to terminate their pregnancy. How amazing would it be for people to understand the challenges of coming to such a decision, the resources needed, how they are accessed, waiting periods, parental notification and/or consent laws, anti-choice protesters, pre-abortion counseling, vacuum aspiration, medical abortion, and post-abortion experiences? It won't be an easy show to watch, but THAT will be groundbreaking. Depicting the reality for so many women, and what the experience is like when a young person exercises their constitutional rights (beyond simply voting) without being judged.

In the meantime, below is the trailer. I'd encourage parents and those of us with young people in our lives of any age to check it out and decide if this could be the series that helps you begin a conversation with the young person in your life about sexuality, parenting, pregnancy, and sex.

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