Thursday, April 19, 2012

Teen pregnancy: Many generations, no 'evolution'

Back in the 1950's and earlier, teen pregnancy was a problem just as it is today. Back then, however, we dealt with it in a horrible, barbaric manner... so say the feminists, at least. A pregnant teen was often shuttled off to a relative's house or a special house for pregnant teens, hidden away from Polite Society until her baby was born. Many times, that baby was either raised by her parents as her sister, or adopted out to another family. Shame was the order of the day. Her friends and schoolmates might suspect, but "ideally" should never have actually known for sure.

Now it's much better, or at least that's what impressionable teen girls are taught by those who are trying to inculcate them in the New Method and keep them from questioning it. Now, instead of being hidden away for months in a state of shame, they are taken away for only a few hours, maybe even less. It is still a hidden place, a place of shame, where advocates do all they can to assure that the procedure they undergo is done in the strictest secrecy. Even the girls' own parents often are not allowed to know about the abortions that the Planned Parenthood consultant or the school nurse will so gladly procure for them.

In the end, however, the mindset is the same, and the word of the day is shame. The 50's girl was taken to a hidden place to have her baby. The modern girl is taken to a hidden place to abort her baby. In both cases, they are given the message that their mistake is being 'fixed', in such a way that will not embarrass them in public. So what is the real difference? Not in cause, not in mindset... only the effect is changed. Before, at least a living person would have the chance to see the light of day and grow up to make all of her choices. Now, not only is that living person snuffed out, but her mother is held down and violated with sharp metal instruments tearing at her insides and, disturbingly often, causing physical as well as emotional damage that will haunt her for the rest of her life. Pro-abortion people, and, unwittingly, pro-choice people, call this Progress.

I would like to introduce another way of thinking about teen pregnancy.

When I was a young adult, I picked up a book that has fallen out of favor in modern day highschools. It is called The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Nowadays, it is generally barely mentioned, and only in derision. This book, in which an adulterous woman is sentenced to wear an embroidered red A on the chest of her clothing for the rest of her life, is condemned as a primitive Puritan shame-fest. It should be re-examined for what it actually is.

The young woman who bore the letter, Hester Prynne, was discovered in adultery when she became pregnant during a very long absence of her husband. She found a quiet, small house in which to live and raise her daughter. Over time, her scarlet A lost its initial horror as the people became accustomed to her. As she showed her skill with the needle, earning her keep, and showed herself to be a sober person committed to raising her child with dignity, the A further lost its sense of shame and horror. Living with her shame presented outwardly to society instead of hidden away, she beautified her life and became accepted within the community.

Meanwhile, she continued to staunchly refuse to reveal the name of her child's father. While her shame was open for everyone to see, his shame was hidden. Out of unexpressed guilt, he deteriorated, destroying himself by his silence while she built herself up by her deeds. Her good deeds, you see, in the face of her shame, rehabilitated her image by demonstrating her repentance. His good deeds only mocked him, giving him an image that he did not deserve, hurting him instead of easing his conscience. Finally, by the time he set out to break the bonds of hidden shame over his heart, it was too late... and the effort killed him.

When we hide away pregnant teens until their babies can be 'properly' killed so that 'nobody has to know', we are condemning them to the life of Hester's co-adulterer. When we used to hide away pregnant teens until their babies were born and spirited away, at least we were not adding murder to our efforts to hide their shame. We have not 'evolved', we have not progressed. We have regressed.

Someday we will face real progress, and create a society in which the shame of the pregnant teen is brought out into the open and faced clearly. Only then will we be able to build them up in the light instead of tearing them down in the dark.