The Problem With “You Should Have Thought Of That Before You Got Pregnant”

I stumbled upon this beautiful video from the young women at Global Girl Media, taking an up close and personal look at teen pregnancy.

Featured in the video is 17-year-old Ameerah, mom to one-year-old son Jamir. Her mother has been incarcerated for much of her life and after discovering she was pregnant at 16, her guardian kicked her out of the house. She is now homeless, crashing on different couches from week to week and trying to provide for her son as best she can. Calls to local resources for teen parents netted absolutely zero assistance, leaving Ameerah wondering how she is going to see her dream of becoming a nurse.

“I can’t think of myself anymore, even if it is taking an emotional toll on me,” Ameerah says in the video, her voice breaking. “I have to think about what’s best for [my son]. I can’t let him see my cry. I can’t let him see me down. Because babies can feel your energy.”

So here is my question to all those who believe that kicking a pregnant teen out of your house is acceptable: What then? You’ve effectively gotten the “problem” out of your house, but of course that is not where it ends.

It ends with the teen mom dropping out of school, because she has no stable housing so how is she supposed to focus on school? It ends with the mom moving in with the boyfriend (who is most likely older) and becoming locked into a relationship with an unequal balance of power. It ends with the mom grabbing whatever support she can find, even if that support comes at the expense of her own physical and mental well-being.

Can’t we do better?