{"id":165832,"date":"2017-05-08T20:47:49","date_gmt":"2017-05-09T01:47:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=165832"},"modified":"2025-06-20T00:08:04","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T05:08:04","slug":"pregnant-at-16-i-rejected-abortion-today-i-have-no-regrets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pregnant-at-16-i-rejected-abortion-today-i-have-no-regrets\/","title":{"rendered":"Pregnant at 16, I rejected abortion \u2014 today, I have no regrets"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Secular Pro-Life<\/a>) There you\u00a0are, waking up in the morning, just like any other morning, but this morning turns different quickly. This morning, you are stuck with an overwhelming feeling that you are about to vomit, and you don\u2019t know why. The smell of the eggs you\u2019re cooking for breakfast, which\u00a0never bothered you before, now seems to hit you so strong, it\u2019s as though\u00a0a skunk sprayed you directly in your face. The next thing you notice is that your period is a week late, and you don\u2019t know why, so you opt to take a pregnancy test.<\/p>\n

As you take that test, there are so many things running through your mind. I can\u2019t be pregnant. I\u2019m only 16. I have no money to raise a baby, I have no one to support me, and I can\u2019t handle giving up my youth.<\/i> You wait the next two minutes and nervously pick up the test to see the result, and bam, you see two lines\u00a0\u2013 you’re pregnant! Now you\u2019re thinking,\u00a0What can I do? I must have an abortion. I\u2019m not ready to become a mom.<\/i><\/p>\n

Like many young adults and teens, I found myself in the same situation or a similar situation to what you\u2019re in. I want you to know you\u2019re not alone, and someone out there is going through the same thing.<\/p>\n

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\nThis link helps with housing support.<\/a>\u00a0I was told by counselors at school about a program to help me graduate faster. I went to a program online that allows you to get the credits you need to graduate. I could work at my own pace, have a small classroom setting with people just like me, and still have help from instructors. I ended up graduating early; in fact, I finished up before my baby was even born. At the time, I also received help from a local organization called the Pregnancy Resource Center. The program allowed pregnant families to watch parenting videos in exchange for mommy dollars. Mommy dollars were a blessing, because you could use the mommy dollars to purchase diapers, clothes, strollers, and bottles for your baby. The program even did free medical visits, so you could have ultrasounds even if you didn\u2019t have insurance. In addition, I had help from WIC, which is a program that pays for healthy food for you and your baby.<\/p>\n

My story started when I was in high school; I was in 11th grade and had so many dreams before me. When I took my pregnancy test, I had many of the same thoughts in my head, but my biggest one was, how was I going to tell my parents? I found myself going to school sick as a dog, worrying about what all the other students said about me. I worried about what my grandmother was going to say about me. My story was slightly unique in that my grandmother had mainly raised me from when I was a year old. My grandmother had her first child when she was just 15 and dropped out of school in the eighth grade, so as you can imagine, she had high hopes for me to do better in life.<\/p>\n

I will never forget the day when she asked me if I was pregnant, while I was sitting on her living room couch. I bet you could probably have heard my heart beating from across the room. I was honest with her and told her I was indeed pregnant, but as I told her, she began to fall on her knees and cry. It took my grandmother nine\u00a0months to speak to me again, because after that day, she disowned me.<\/p>\n

I also was told numerous times: Well, you ruined your life\u00a0\u2013 basically no hope for you now.<\/i> It was hard not to sketch that in my brain, because I too was down about my future. I had plans to go to college for a least four\u00a0years to be a nurse, then eventually to become a doctor. I also realized I\u2019m pregnant and may never finish high school, so now what do I do?<\/p>\n

Although this story seams glum now, it does have a happy ending. I\u2019m now 23 with three children, I\u2019m married, and I have a rewarding job. No matter what the obstacle is you’re going through, you can get through it without abortion!<\/p>\n

According to the CDC, 22 out of 1,000 births are by girls ages 15-18, and the total births in 2015 were around four million. As the statistics show, there’s an abundance of young people having babies, so please don\u2019t feel alone.<\/p>\n

Along with births, there also comes assistance. I want to introduce you to some helpful links and programs:<\/p>\n