Today on Listen Up: Unplanned pregnancy has been a staple of pop
culture for years. But now comes word that among some teens, pregnancy
is cool. Today, we’ll explore what this means. For the teens, and for
their babies.
The Context
Jamie Lynn Spears.
16-year-old star of the kids’ hit TV series Zoey 101. Her website lists
cheerleading as a favourite activity. But that was before she announced
her pregnancy. Spears told OK magazine she’s planning to keep her baby.
Juno. The movie opened to unanimous applause. It tells the
story of another 16-year-old facing an unplanned pregnancy. Juno
considers abortion, then decides to have the baby. Closed adoption is
this teen mom’s choice.
Human Reproduction. A Canadian study
indicates babies born from teenage fathers run greater health risks
than those born to older dads.
Maclean’s magazine. Early in
2008 runs a story headlined, “Suddenly teen pregnancy is cool?” Fifty
percent of Canadian teen pregnancies end in abortion. But the story
cites international statistics indicating teen birth rates are on the
rise.
Katherine is the director of the Pregnancy Help Centre of Durham. PHC
has two sites located in the Durham region offering support and
counseling to women in need.
Dawn is a community worker at Toronto City Mission who counsels urban youth. She is a former teen mom who shares her story.
Helpful Resources
Canadian Association of Pregnancy Support Services (CAPSS) http://www.capss.com/
CAPSS
is committed to supporting member charities in demonstrating the love
of Jesus Christ through acts of service. Services designed to help with
the physical, medical, emotional, economical and social needs that
arise with crisis pregnancies. And of course, we strive to equip our
members to effectively communicate the life-changing message of the
Gospel. In the words of Francis of Assisi, "Preach the Gospel at all
times. If necessary use words."
Silent No More Awareness Campaign www.silentnomoreawareness.org
The
Silent No More Awareness Campaign is an effort to make the public aware
of the devastation abortion brings to women, men, and their families.
The emotional and physical pain of abortion will no longer be shrouded
in secrecy and silence, but rather exposed and healed. This effort is a
key to make abortion unthinkable and persuade society that women
deserve better than abortion.
Today we looked
at the trend to define teen pregnancy as cool. Teen pregnancy changes
everyone involved, forever. I'm not sure the word we need for that is
"cool". It's more like, "grace. " It takes alot of grace to go the
distance with teen pregnancy. Grace in terms of how we treat each
other.
We saw that in the hit movie Juno in a painful way. A
16-year-old gave grace to her unborn child when she thought through its
humanity. Heartbroken parents gave 16 -year-old Juno, grace. Then
Juno gave grace to the adopting mother.
We saw spiritual
grace in our real life stories. People equipped with the riches of God
because they had met Jesus. For their teen pregnancies, that grace
changed their world.
It's what God does with the repair work
around all our mistakes. Grace from God. It's seen best in
relationship with God through the love of Jesus. A relationship meant
to put us in a place where we have a spiritual anchor that will guide
us through our troubles and give us a moral compass. On our website
you'll find caring people at the Crisis Pregnancy network across Canada
- they have answers for the stress of unplanned pregnancies. Be sure
to check it out.
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Read Lorna's Globe & Mail columns by searching
our archive.
Read 'Media & The Message'. Lorna says if the church wants to impact society, we need to share our stories.
On April 30, 2005 Lorna was privileged to receive an honorary Doctorate of Christian Ministries from Canada's largest Christian university, Trinity Western University. Lorna was recognized for the witness and leadership that Listen Up TV has provided in public messaging: "a leader in the voice of evangelical life in Canada."
