MTV’S new reality show “16 and Pregnant” just launched its second season, which promises to be even more dramatic than the first one. For those of you who haven’t had the chance to see the show, “16 and Pregnant” chronicles the story of a pregnant 16-year-old each week, beginning with the end of her pregnancy and continuing for about two months after the baby is born. While an initial worry of the show was that it might idealize teen pregnancy, this hasn’t been the case. Rather, MTV has done an exceptional job of documenting the both the emotional and financial challenges facing teen parents and their families.
Far from idealizing the challenges facing teen mothers, “16 and Pregnant” shows a realistic view of teen pregnancy. Being a new mother, much less a teen mother, is extremely difficult. The girls are shown getting up in the middle of the night to take care of their children and often lament both how exhausting and tiring the maternal life truly is. There are also relationship troubles, both with boyfriends and with parents. On most episodes, the girls express a desire for their boyfriends to grow up and take on some responsibility. The expectant mothers unrealistically tend to think that once the baby is born, everything will change and suddenly their boyfriends will become responsible. An oft-heard sentiment is that some girls think a baby will lead to marriage or at least a serious long-term relationship. This certainly isn’t the case for the majority of the girls. Most of the girls are no longer with their boyfriends, and some boyfriends are no longer even in the picture. While a baby certainly is a wonderful thing, at this age it only adds serious stress and strain on a relationship‚ a fact shown on the show through torrents of tears and arguments.
Though “16 and Pregnant” is a reality show, there are certain topics that are always discussed. For example, in most shows, the viewer will find out whether the couple used birth control when they became pregnant. This is a very important part of the show because teens often feel like they are invincible and that they won’t become pregnant. The examples of these teen couples, however, reiterates the need not just to always use birth control, but to use it properly. The episode featuring Jenelle shows a conversation between Jenelle, her friend, and her then-boyfriend Andrew about how she became pregnant. She says that she stopped taking her birth control for a few days because she and Andrew had gotten into a fight. When they got back together, they had unprotected sex even though Jenelle had gone off her birth control. Jenelle said that the two of them had previously had sex “other times before and didn’t get pregnant.” So she thought there was no way she “would suddenly get pregnant,” But she did.
Although MTV has done an excellent job with the show, there is a fine line that needs to be drawn, especially given the recent success of the show. As most of us know some people will do just about anything to get their own reality show (balloon boy, anyone) and MTV must be careful not to have the show be so popular or financially lucrative that young girls are getting pregnant just so they can be on television.
Even though it is unlikely that this show alone will have a major impact on teen pregnancy in the United States, it is still a very important show in that it depicts real people and their real difficulties trying to raise a child at such a young age. Maybe some young couples out there will see it and take extra precautions so that they do not end up like the young couples on the show. Regardless, “16 and Pregnant” is an informative show that realistically depicts the struggles often faced by teenage parents.
Megan Stiles’ column runs on Thursdays. She can be reached at m.stiles@cavalierdaily.com
Megan Stiles,
What about the hundreds of teen pregnancies going on all around you at the University of Virginia? What happened to THOSE babies, hmm? Have you ever even once seen a pregnant student at “The University?”
In reality, you’ve seen hundreds of them. Those babies were simply killed before they could grow large enough for you to notice that maternal “bump.” So your presumption that this is somehow a problem of some other lowly demographic conveniently ignores the obvious. At least the babies in this MTV program are still alive. The ones conceived as a result of UVA’s hook up culture are all dead, and spending this weekend in the garbage dump instead of on MTV.
I realize that this is an unpleasant reality, but it is a reality nonetheless. Because you choose to turn a blind eye to something so prevalent does not mean it isn’t there. Indeed, when you and your colleagues were busy being born and cared for in the middle of the night, Mr. Casteen was busy putting a regime in place here at UVA that beheaded 573 infants right inside UVA hospital in 1991-92. And that doubtless represents way less than half the total, since most abortions are referrals to clinics in far away in places like Richmond or Falls Church. Among the UVA students who have shared their abortions stories with me, Planned Parenthood in Richmond seems to be the clinic of choice for aborting Wahoos.
Your article also makes two other mistakes. First, you the pharmaceutical industry lie that “birth control” is so very effective, and that it’s failure is due only to people not using it properly. As even the pro abortion/pro steroids FDA has had to admit – the typical pregnancy rate for women using the pill is 5 percent. This means that of every 100 women using the pill, 5 will be pregnant within 12 months. About 10.4 million American women use the pill; thus there are more than 500,000 pregnancies per year among these pill users. At UVA where well over half the 11,000 women take them, that translates to 1452 pregnancies over a 4 year period at UVA. And that is just the bare minimum! You also make no mention that these pills themselves cause early abortions via breakthrough ovulation, and that the longer you are on them, the more that happens. Like with any drug, your body counteracts and becomes more immune to it over time. Thus, lots of pregnancies for women who have been on them for years. Indeed, two surveys by AGI (Planned Parenthood research arm) have shown that 56%- 58% of women procuring abortions were using some method of birth control the month they became pregnant. Pharmacist Patrick McCrystal said 20-30 mcg estrogen Pills, designed to minimize side effects, have a breakthrough ovulation rate between 2-10%, and progestogen-only Pills have a breakthrough rate of 60-85%.
Lastly, you make no mention that what we are actually talking about here are cancer causing steroids. The term “birth control” was coined as a gimmick by a woman back in the 30′s who was a eugenicist and wanted to weed out the dysgenic races by way of it and once said “we don’t want the word out that we want to exterminate the negro race.” Amazing as it is, people like you still use her gimmick phrase in the year 2010.
These pills were supposed to eliminate the need for abortions altogether. They failed. The two together were supposed to eliminate everything from poverty to child abuse to male abandonment. Total failure in all three there also. All they really HAVE done for us is make the USA the world’s leader in breast cancer incidence. If Jenelle gets breast cancer in 15 years, do you think MTV will make a reality show about her then?
Naaaaah..
Oh, and these steroids you promote also cause birth defects, liver cancer, heart disease, and cervical cancer also. Why is it, Megan, that you avoid mentioning these facts?
http://uvalies.org/
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“18 and pregnant.”
Maybe they could produce another show from the UVA dorms:
But alas, the coverage of each pregnancy would only last a week or two.. Followed by a lifetime of very awkward silence and making sure nobody found out what really happened to these babies far less fortunate than the ones we get to see, hear, and smile at on MTV.
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Archer- I would just like to point out that the reason people still get pregnant on the pill is because they don’t take them correctly. User error. Of course there’s always the case that for some reason a person got pregnant using the pill correctly, but I’ll say the former reason prevails in 95% of the cases. .
Your comment is a blatant scare tactic. Any other medication can cause side effects.
Whether or not you like it, people are going to have sex, protected or not, and they may want to get rid of a fetus. If they’re determined enough, they’re going to have an abortion; it’s better to have a safe and sanitary place to do this rather than some dirty back ally.
People have a right to choose for themselves– not have the government do it for them.
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Mary,
You can repeat the lies of the pharmaceutical/abortion industry over and over again if you wish. Indeed, you can bang your head against the wall if you’d like. You are never going to change the medical or scientific facts. Cancer causing steroids are indeed medication for a few. But only a few. People like you have made our country the world’s leader in breast cancer incidence. When the pill arrived in 1960, breast cancer was an obscure, rare disease that affected one in 25 women. When killing your own child became allowable in 1973, it was one in 14. After decades of both in epidemic proportions, it is now one in 8.
“Congratulations.”
I don’t expect that these startling figures will dissuade a person such as you one bit. You are clearly AOK with destroying the health of women just as you are with beheading their children. You need not look back to a concentration camp guard or a slave trader to find cruelty and evil in the world. You need only to look in the mirror. But the problem for you and yours in the killing lobby is that it is much harder now to keep the secrets and maintain the misinformation that you have gotten away with for so long. People are getting informed. Your victims – the ones still alive anyway – are not being as quiet as they used to be.
http://breastcancer.about.com/b/2010/01/08/abortion-birth-control-pills.htm
Here’s just a tiny portion of the women who got what they gave rather quickly in these “safe” and “sanitary” places:
http://www.lifedynamics.com/Pro-life_Group/Botched_Abortion/
Whether or not you like it, human rights and the protection of women’s health are advancing on several fronts. It has become much more difficult for you to keep people in the dark so as to profit from their destruction. It hasn’t been a good year, has it?
http://www.liveaction.org/
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Archer,
The article was about a reality TV show on MTV. I fail to see how the author was required to address your idealogical objections to birth control pills and elective abortions, specifically with regard to UVA, but I hope you enjoyed the time on your soap box.
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Archer, I feel bad for you.
You completely missed the point of the article. You’re attacking some premises which don’t even exist. Learn to read. Thanks.
Anddd get your facts straight..
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It’s fairly obvious that Archer is Sean Cannan.
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Folks, with members of my activist group quickly nearing the century mark, you shouldn’t think that all the work here or anywhere is always done by me alone. Nor can I control anyone using any name posting here or anywhere. Indeed, our co-director lives in Ireland, we have members in Egypt, UVA students studying abroad, alumni help, etc. We’ve shot past 20,000 visitors to our website, and that includes over 300 from Moscow, Russia in the past few weeks. Rest assured that UVA is getting some worldwide attention that it deserves rather than what it wants.
I did write the “18 and pregnant” post above, as I thought it prudent to remind people that teen pregnancy is at the very least as common right here on grounds as it is in any other demographic. It’s just that none of the hundreds of children conceived at UVA ever survive. They are ALL killed. Forgive me for mentioning an unpleasant reality, but the statistics that we got from the state board of health as well as a recent Planned Parenthood defector confirm this. In a few weeks, both the UVA health system and Planned Parenthood will share in the profits of a surge in abortion sales resulting from the annual spring break rush.
Narcan, if someone wrote an article on, say, binge drinking – depicted on a reality TV show – would it be prudent for them to pretend that it was a terrible problem for only the demographic depicted on that TV show? Or would it be fair to expect the author to at least mention the obvious – that it is very popular among the UVA student body also (as it is at most universities). Indeed, I don’t think such a huge, gaping omission would be contemplated about any other subject other than the one of pregnancy. That is the reason for us posting here and pointing out the elephant sitting on the coffee table that Megan very specifically chose not to mention. No offense to her or anyone, it just is what it is. And any article about teen pregnancy written by someone surrounded by same should have a much larger portion of reality served up with it.
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