What Was She Thinking?
by Janiza Melendez
If I was your child would you give me your love, your time, your devotion?
If I was your child, would you give me your love, your time, your devotion? Not so much if you were only in high school. Young ladies these days are spending their time n having children and not even being well aware of how much of a privilege it is to be a mother, the responsibility and the commitment that comes along with carrying that child for nine months and raising them. Honestly, where are all the mothers? Why are daughters getting pregnant in their freshman year, knowing that they are not physically or emotionally prepared for a child? And parents please don't give the excuse that you weren't aware your daughter was having sex! Apparently some mothers aren't doing their job as parents by citing the consequences that come along with becoming sexually active. Suppose mothers were to talk to their daughters about all the diseases they could catch without even being aware of them, or all the time she could lose towards her future by having a child at such a young age?
(So as I mentally prepare you for what is about to be demonstrated, just sit down and think of how long it may take you to realize you may have made a huge mistake.) Let me first start by giving you a brief biography on myself. I am currently 14-years-old, and come from a Hispanic background. At my age if I were to get pregnant, I would literally be beaten. I know it sounds funny, but its true! My mother would disown me. I am sad to say, I see girls who are getting pregnant at my age and younger. I am writing this to try to prevent tragedy from happening, tragedies that vary from babies being thrown into dumpsters and sold for drugs, to young women being disowned by their families because they are confessing to their parents that they are four weeks pregnant and wanting an abortion.
Teenage pregnancy needs to end, be turned down, erased. Girls ranging from the ages of 14-18 are getting pregnant, handing their babies to their mothers, and are well on their way to the streets. Statistics-wise, this is nothing new. Check it out: one million teens in the U.S.A. will become pregnant over the next twelve months. Ninety-five percent of those pregnancies are unplanned, about one-third will end in abortion, one-third will end in spontaneous miscarriage, and one-third will continue their pregnancy to term and keep their babies. Approximately four percent of young women become pregnant before they reach 20 years old. Is this really what we want our statistics to be? I think not! Young women are smarter than the media gives us credit.
Back to basics! If we keep putting ourselves in this trap of trash-talking and bashing, the future will never change. You may ask, who am I to be advising you at such a young age? I'll tell you: I'm a young woman who is ready for the change of a new era where people are prepared for pregnancy and the duties that follow, where pregnancy is not taken as a game. If that doesn't give you a big flashing red light to HALT, then I don’t know what will. Peace!