Letters to the Editor
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I Saw This on the CNN
that runs Glenn Beck 18 hours a day. The male host was interviewing a Concerned Woman for America who was, predictably, calling for pregnant teens to be expelled from school and forced into maternity schools. The male CNN host, not Glenn Beck, was arguing that pregnant teens need support systems and if you are really "pro-life" you have to be pro-life when the life actually exits the womb but the Concerned Woman wouldn't budge. It made me thing that if they really wanted it to be a deterrent then they would take the pregnant teen, bury her up to her neck in the schoolyard, and let her peers stone her to death. That should really cement group solidarity against deviant choices! Yessiree!
Of course no mention was made of any punitive educational retaliation against teen fathers. The male CNN host, not Glenn Beck, also referred to the teenagers' choices to carry their babies to term as "brave" and the Concerned Woman, part of a virulent anti-abortion group, could only muster a faint sneer.
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"Recovery leave" yes..."child care leave" no
A girl recovering from the physical effects of childbirth should be given "medical leave" just like an adult woman at work. But as for "parental leave" - OH COME ON!!! Anyone with a passing acquaintance with teen parenthood knows that the girl's MOTHER (or other female relative/caregiver) is doing 90% of the baby-tending anyway, so what's the big deal?
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I'm inclined to agree with the "maternity leave"...
I don't want to "encourage" teen pregnancy, but expecting the girls back in school the day after they are released from the hospital is ridiculous. Especially since hospitals don't keep you that long after you've had a baby nowadays.
Yeah, three or four days after becoming a mother, your hormones are going crazy, and your milk is coming in...yep, that's exactly when you need to be sitting on your stitches on a wooden lecture hall chair seven hours a day, because you are SOOOO going to be able to pay attention to algebra.
And what of the girls who had C-sections? I thought the recovery time for those was six weeks or something thereabouts.
"But they should think about the consequences before opening their legs..." Of course they should. But this is the wrong way to "punish" them. Kids get hurt in stupid-ass car accidents all the time, and they are allowed medical leave to recover from their injuries. They get to do the work from home.
Let the girls do the work from home if they want. Encouraging them to complete their educations is going to make their lives better, their babies' lives better (why should we punish a little baby for his parents' being too young?), and overall, it will be less costly to society in the long run.
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Going with Catherine Price's logic, Lynn, I think we need to force abortions on these teenagers
We've heard several times recently from Catherine Price that:
a) it's just a mass of cells, not a baby
b) it's not a civil rights issue
c) it's relatively easy for a parent (a father) to give up/forget/ignore their biological father.
Catherine Price has convinced me. There is no reason for teen pregnancy and it is an economic harm to society.
I think what we could very easily do is create pregnancy detecting toilets (should be relatively simple for a toilet to sample the urine) and then alert the school authorities when a student has become pregnant.
At that point, very early on, she should be forced to take an abortion pill.
Basically, that would enable the young woman to easily abort the mass of cells and get back to her primary job which is to obtain an education.
I hope you agree with me, Ms. Harris, that this is actually the feminist approach to the situation. It supports and doesn't blame the young woman, it is a sex positive solution, and it requires no shaming or punishing of either the mother or the father.
Also, it fits in with the Broadsheet Feminist(TM) approach to Gardasil, which says that it is okay for the government to force potentially unwanted and life damaging chemicals into a young woman's body.
I think I should get at least one red star for my modest proposal. Don't you agree?
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Beck
Glenn Beck did cover this last night. I saw a bit of an interview with some guy who seemed to be on the side of giving the new mothers support and a chance to get their education. I didn't watch long enough to get any other info.
I'm in favor of giving the new mothers leave, with maybe some sort of homeschooling. This is such an emotional issue. I have two nieces who started having babies at a much too young age and both dropped out of school. Now they live in poverty with kids they can't afford. It's very tough for them to get the motivation and initiative to further themselves while trying to support their families.
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c) it's relatively easy for a parent (a father) to give up/forget/ignore their biological child
That should of course be:
c) it's relatively easy for a parent to give up/forget/ignore their biological child
Seriously, it seems a school toilets could detect pregnancies within the first week and most likely within the time period when an abortion pill would be effective. And if not, a simple operation by the school nurse would almost certainly do the trick.
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Whatever It Takes
Do whatever it takes to get her to graduation.
This is no brainer.
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What we are talking about
here folks, is SHAME. There has been a lack of shame on the part of teenagers when they become pregnant. As a matter of fact, it has become a badge of honor and a way to get priviledges, if you can believe that.
Further, if a single teen has a baby, you MUST know the mother of the teen will be doing the caring for the baby because the teen sure won't know what to do (MOST of the time).
So I must tend to agree that the teen should be given leave ONLY to recover and then sent back to school. If she's called a careless skank or easy or whatever, then maybe she'll be a bit more careful if she has sex in the future. What would help in this is if the teens mother MADE her take care of her child as much as possible too! Doing school work AND taking care of a child wouldn't leave her much time for partying either...which would help keep her out of trouble.