Glorifying Teen Pregnancy is a Luxury Belief
If pundits claim teen pregnancy is “good, actually,” why isn’t it good enough for their daughters?
For men who may be reading this (many such cases) how would you have felt if your girlfriend had gotten pregnant when you were thirteen? I know, I know, you didn’t have a girlfriend. You’re reading CHH of all things, I am fully aware you were not having sex in high school. But let’s say you did have one and she got pregnant. Would you have been really excited to be a father? Jumping for joy? Thrilled about this new chapter in your life?
Before you say “of course not,” be aware that a post went viral this week on Twitter for asserting that all thirteen-year-old boys—not some, but literally every one!—are so excited to be dads, the proof being that they are “horny.”
This account has since been suspended, and I have a suspicion that he was trolling anyway, but this tweet is simply a really extreme version of what’s going on through some of the darker corners of pro-natalist social media. Please don’t “nobody is saying that” me. Plenty of people are, in fact, saying that.
Perhaps accurately, many pundits in the improve-birth-rates-at-all-cost space have realized that the drastic reduction in TFR is at least in part to a reduction in teen pregnancies. While some more reasonable people have sought to find ways to raise the birth rate among legal adults, others have simply suggested that we “destigmatize” teen pregnancy. Nay, “normalize!”
In case you think I’m completely making this up, very-legitimate-journalist and friend of the ‘Stack Jane Coaston has also noticed it. Alternative theory: she’s just as crazy as I am, or maybe she’s a Beautiful Mind style hallucination of mine, but I doubt it.
Entrepreneur Palmer Luckey recently stated that women are “supposed” to complete their childbearing years between 16 and 18. Also, the famous IVF pro-natalist meets Amishcore couple, Malcolm and Simone Collins declared that to raise the birth rate, we must “remove the stigma associated with teen marriage and pregnancy.” An actual teenager responded with this:
It’s notable that the people glorifying the merits of teen pregnancy are often upper middle class and college-educated, and have never been teen parents themselves. In fact, many of them didn’t start having children until well into their thirties. I would also venture they would go to great efforts to prevent their own children from becoming teen parents. The glorification of teen pregnancy is a luxury belief.
