Teenage Pregnancy Stories

QUESTION: Can you tell me some teenage pregnancy stories?

ANSWER:

The following true teenage pregnancy stories represent real people and were submitted from a local pregnancy center.

Lynn*
Lynn came to the center seeking an abortion. She had recently moved to our community to live with her boyfriend and she had no support systems. Her boyfriend had become abusive and she had spent the night in a shelter. She looked so weary, her only words a repeated request for an abortion. At the center, Lynn was told what an abortion would entail, and she agreed to an ultrasound. She openly expressed hope that it was not a viable pregnancy. She remained resolute regarding the abortion and felt it was the only answer for her. She agreed to a second ultrasound, but did not show up at her appointed time. When she did not return my calls, I anticipated the worst.

On Thursday afternoon, Lynn walked into our center and my heart melted. I was so happy to see her, though I dreaded hearing that she had terminated her pregnancy.

I couldn't have been more wrong! I told her how happy I was to see her and that I had continued to pray for her. She told me she had started bleeding the day before. After several hours, the bleeding increased, so she became alarmed and drove herself to the ER. Whatever was going on, it involved a lot of pain.

Hours later, she experienced a miscarriage and was discharged from the hospital that morning.

"I wanted you to know that I didn't get an abortion and I am glad I didn't,” she said. “Every time I tried to go through with it, I just couldn't. I had begun to think about adoption."

She wanted me to know that her boyfriend had been arrested, as we had prayed, and she felt safer knowing he was locked up. Lynn asked for names and locations of churches, because "I want to believe in something greater than myself. I know I need God." She told me how glad she was that she had come to our pregnancy center.

Amber*
Amber wanted to talk with us about abortion procedures. She’d already talked to Planned Parenthood twice. Sharon, a woman who works at our center, could see Amber was having a hard time with her thoughts.

Amber never thought she’d be in this situation. Her new boyfriend doesn’t want to raise someone else’s baby, so he has asked her to abort the child.

Pale and shaky, Amber struggled to find an easy way out. We went over the abortion procedures and we talked with her about adoption. Like so many of our other clients, Amber said she could never have a baby and give it away. She agreed to come for an ultrasound. Throughout the procedure, she cried, and left saying she had to get an abortion.

Amber told us she wouldn’t tell her parents or her ex-boyfriend -- the baby’s father -- that she was pregnant or that she was getting an abortion. She came in the next day requesting her ultrasound report. We asked her to come back the following Monday so our physician could sign it first. Tuesday afternoon, she came in with a smile on her face and a complete change in her attitude and continence. She told us she had been thinking about it and realized her baby is a life. She would not -- could not -- have an abortion. It was clear a huge load had been taken off her shoulders.

Jen*
Jen came in on Monday and told her counselor she had an appointment for an abortion at 9 a.m. the next morning. She gave her counselor permission to share information about abortion procedures and post-abortion stress. Jen’s expression remained blank. She listened, but nothing we said seemed to move her.

Since we were also doing sonograms that day, she agreed to have one. She left without changing her mind; her counselor thought she would keep the abortion appointment. The next morning, she called and asked if she could come in and talk. She had told her boyfriend she didn’t think she could do go through with the abortion. She told us how her boyfriend had breathed a sigh of relief and said that even though he had told her he would support whatever decision she made, he’d hoped she would choose not to have an abortion. If she did, he said he knew that every time they drove to the city, all he would be able to think about was the time they came there to kill their child.

Jen wanted to get all the pre-natal information and vitamins we offer and her countenance was completely different as she received the information. Jen and her boyfriend chose to carry and parent their child.