Fifteen & Pregnant

[Kitsune]

This is a project that kind of jumped into my mid. The idea is to write as if a fifteen year old and am pregnant. Some way of getting into the mind of pro-life people. Any suggestions on how I might improve this. Yes, I quite realize that the whole idea is likely futile.


My name is Julie. I am fifteen and I am pregnant. My mother gave birth to me when she was only sixteen. I have been told that my grandmother was of around the same age. How can I break from the circle. It is not that I never want to have a family, but I know I am too young. I wanted to have a family when I could raise them in a better environment that I had. Where I could provide everything they needed. What can I do now.

I don't understand. It felt so wonderful with my boyfriend. He made me feel special. Someone who actually cared about me. It is only natural for boys and girls yet people act like I am doing something that they didn't when they were kid. True, I should have been more careful. I made a mistake but everybody does yet all the adults try and pretend that they never did anything wrong.

My mother works as a clerk at a motel. Growing up, I remember her going from dead end job to dead end job. I tried so hard in school. My grades were not wonderful but they were not bad. I had such dreams before I became pregnant. Dreams of college. Dreams of traveling around the world. Now, all I can look forward to is a life like my mother. I love her but that is not what I wanted for myself. I may have to drop out of school to care for my baby. It feels like my whole life is in ruins.

No one knows where my father is. I was told that he ran off soon after he found out that my mother was pregnant. My boyfriend did not run off but he already has moved onto another girl. He denies that he is the father but he is the only one I ever slept with. I have heard that he has gotten several girls pregnant and I am just the latest in a long line. He was eighteen and just seemed so sophisticated.

I have been told to put my child up for adoption but there are so many problems. I tried talking to councillors and it seems hopeless. Foster care is even more of a mess. Some of the girls in my school live in foster care and many of them became pregnant even earlier than I did. Many foster parents take the children in simply for the extra money.

The Church tells me that I am a sinful slut. They tell me that if I remained pure none of this would have ever happened. I have been told that this child is punishment from god for my wicked ways. They then tell me that the fetus is a gift from god. A precious baby. They have lobbied successfully in this state to make getting an abortion almost impossible. Is not quality of life as important as quantity of life.

They also have worked to cut many of the social welfare program. It used to be that there were programs which would help me finish school. They are all gone now. I went to one of the Church run clinics. They showed me some meaningless scan and told me how wonderful it would be to be a mommy. They then handed me a pack of diapers. How is this suppose to help me.

I told my mother. We cried for hours together. I don't know what to do. I need help and no one seems willing to give it to me. Please help me!

[Wicked Pilot]

Since no one else is answering I'll throw in my two cents:

First, people don't like being jerked around, especially over subjects the feel very emotional about.

Second, you're best off talking to actual 15 year old mothers who can tell you not only what people told them, but how they actually acted before and after the pregancy/abortion. That would give you a greater understand into what you're looking for.

[Master of Ossus]

Your audience needs some reason to give a damn about Julie before she launches into her issues. It's heartless, but no one cares about dumb people who make mistakes unless we can understand why they made the mistakes in the first place. It's too easy to brush off such stories with lines like, "Well, if you hadn't...." It'll be tough to do this if you're intent on writing a brief little short story, so of course this will require much greater length, but it will also be a much more effective piece that more successfully develops its message.

[Zero]

I had a friend who got pregnant at 15. It miscaried, and she went through a lot of emotional shit, and never told anyone but me. I'd get her in touch with you, if you wanted some help, although she's a bit pissed at me just now, and I couldn't guarantee anything.

If you were just going to go with what you've got now, try to give her more to lose by fucking up. Add a bit about her grades being good, and her having prospects at decent colleges with some scholarship money. Don't go with something so fantastically normal for her becoming pregnant. Go with something about lacking a clear father figure when she was growing up; a lot of chicks like that want more male attention than most. Or maybe her mother had repeated one-night-stands, and she assumed it was normal. Go with something related to her situation instead of related to that's reasonably normal. If you go with the my-mom-was-a-slut-so-it-seemed-normal bit, then you even give the implication of a continuing cycle, since her mother was an underage mother as well.

Talk also about a personal connection to the adoption situation, instead of just talks with councilors. She has a specific friend, perhaps a black kid named Ian, who had been picked up by three seperate families throughout his life, is severely depressed, can't get along with any of his new families, and also cuts himself. He feels completely unloved, and thinks frequently that he has nothing to live for. Because of his position, psychiatric care is too expensive to be a viable solution to his problems.

Instead of just talking about how the church calls your 15 year old fake thingy a slut, talk about how you've lost several of your friends from the church, because you're a "sinful slut". Talk about how you've frequently been told you're trash, and how nobody from the church is willing to help you. Underline the hypocrisy by talking about how your friend, Sarah, from church had actually considered herself lucky for a miscaraige the previous year; she didn't want anyone to know she had fucked some guy she knew for one night.

No one's willing to give you help, and social welfare programs are cut frequently, so you feel like there's no hope at all.


Of course, making your lies so extravagant and specific takes longer, and it also presents the possibility of people seeking to help this "poor misguided girl," and finding out that it isn't a girl at all. Just giving you tips, in case you try to bullshit people. Just remember, the personal angle is always more effective. Effective generalizations start with specific examples.

[Raw Shark]

Dear Julie:

Clearly you have been going to the wrong Church. Here at [Denomination] we will lavish you with love and acceptance, at least until your little Believer has safely escaped your sinfully flapping thighs and we can snicker at you behind your back for the rest of your life.

[/Faux Fundie]

[General Trelane (Retired)]

Two things:

1. Really think about what you're trying to achieve with this. "Some way of getting into the mind of pro-life people," is a little vague (I don't want to jump to conclusions).

If you mean to post this in a discussion somewhere and try to pass it off as real, then really think about what would happen if the deception is discovered (as Wicked Pilot said, "people don't like being jerked around").

But maybe that's not what you intend.

2. Cut it down. There's been too much thought put into it, and I, for one, would expect an emotionally distraught teenager to be somewhat less thorough. The rhetorical statements (e.g. "Is not quality of life as important as quantity of life.") also seem out of place to me.

This is not to say that the cut portions can't be used later as follow up.

Just my opinion. . .

[Ypoknons]

Just my opinion. . .

On SD.net, just your opinion isn't going to cut it. You have an opinion because you can prove that it's true. So no need to right that, except perhaps in matters of art and music, where it is can be hard to prove something.

[Zero]

Just my opinion. . .

On SD.net, just your opinion isn't going to cut it. You have an opinion because you can prove that it's true. So no need to right that, except perhaps in matters of art and music, where it is can be hard to prove something.

How could you logically defend or logically argue against what he said? His statement that it was his oppinion was a useless add-on to a useful bit of advice, but your criticism of it was equally pointless. His post was at least relvant to the OP.

[Master of Ossus]

Just my opinion. . .

On SD.net, just your opinion isn't going to cut it. You have an opinion because you can prove that it's true. So no need to right that, except perhaps in matters of art and music, where it is can be hard to prove something.

What the fuck are you talking about? Any sort of subjective (ie. statements on value) or even moral decision is subject to opinionated arguments.

[Ypoknons]

I just wanted to point out that it was redundant. I had no qualms with what he was saying. It was totally irrelevant to the OP, that I conceed, but what the heck is wrong with me thinking that "there's no need to post your it's just your opinion because your opnion is what you assume to be moral".

Look, I'm willing to talk about this in another thread if you want. Let's not crowd up the thread.