Pregnancy - Youth Workin' It

We recently discussed why it’s important to discuss controversial topics with your youth – particularly if you work in a faith-based context – because it’s often those ‘hot button’ issues that can get glossed over or avoided all together.

The example we provided was discussing abortion with the young people in your youth work program or youth ministry.

Honestly, there aren’t a lot of ‘fun and exciting’ activities to help you discuss the three teenage pregnancy options – abortion, adoption or being a teen mom. Most youth will get some kind of an egg or flour bag to care of (if they’re lucky!) and then a few selected, high-risk youth will most likely be given a baby think-it-over.

However, there is a lot of information available and this can provide some useful tools to generate discussions about teen pregnancy options.

Pregnancy Prevention

Pregnancy prevention is still a youth worker’s best tool in helping avoid the whole issue of choosing between being a teen parent, putting a baby up for adoption or choosing to have an abortion. DoSomething.org has a great tool to help with pregnancy prevention – a text baby. Teens in the US can sign up and then they and their friends will receive text ‘babies’ which will need care. This might be a great introduction to the topic of teen pregnancy and therefore the other topics associated with unexpected or unwanted teen pregnancies.

Films

There are movies and films available that your youth programs could show about teen pregnancy, adoption, abortion and teen parenting. You may just want to show clips as discussion starters or you could play the entire film. We can’t recommend many of these films personally and so suggest that you do your own research regarding the suitability of these films for your youth.

Juno

Sarah’s Choice

The Silent Scream (n.b. This film was shown to my youth group with parental permission when I was in the 7th grade. While I understand why some youth workers may choose to show this film, I’m not an advocate for shock-value or emotive tactics because in many cases I find its effectiveness to be short-term. However, I personally found this film to be important during my adolescence and so I’ve included it on the list.)

A list of other possible teen pregnancy movies

Resources

Below you will find resources that may help you in creating a session plan to talk about all the perceived or real advantages and/or disadvantages with regards to choices facing pregnant teens.

Overview of Options for Pregnant Teens from the Mayo Clinic

Possible Consequences of Options for Pregnant Teens from TeenHelp.com

The website TeenBreaks.com explores many topics including hooking up, abortion, pregnancy and much more about sex and relationships that might be worth checking out.

Guest Speakers

You also might reach out to local organizations and charities or within your own organization or congregation to see if anyone is willing to share about their experiences as a teen parent, someone who gave their baby up for adoption (and/or an adoptive family) and someone who had an abortion (or survived one). The closer in age they are to your teens the better but any first hand experience will always be more impactful than a bunch of statistics.

Question: Why is it important for you to discuss teenage pregnancy options with your young people before it happens? What resources would you like to share? Let us know in the comments below.

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Physical abuse. Pregnancy. Suicide. Death.

These are all issues that can be difficult to address with young people. Most youth will have been impacted by at least one of these issues, either directly or by their friends or family being affected by them.

This session idea touches on all of these areas in a fairly non-threatening way. This will therefore hopefully enable your young people to consider and discuss the issues, without putting any of them in too much of an uncomfortable position. Be sensitive to their feelings though, particularly if you’re aware that some of them have gone through any of these situations.

You can then use their answers to gauge where they’re at and if it’s worth planning any future sessions based on the issues raised.

Watch

First of all, watch the Zack Hemsey music video below for his song Waiting Between Worlds.

Discussion

Next, discuss the situations faced by the people in the video. You could come up with your own questions, but here are some conversation starters:

Pregnant Girl

In the first scene, you find out the girl gets beaten up by her boyfriend and then discovers that she’s pregnant. What do you think is going through her head as she sits in the bathroom?
If she was your friend, what would you suggest she do?
Do you feel like she made the right decision leaving the boyfriend? Why?
At the end of the video, the boyfriend sees the positive pregnancy test. What do you think he’s thinking and feeling at that moment?
How could she have avoided being in this situation in the first place?

Old Man On Beach

What do you think he’s thinking about as he’s sitting on the beach?
What do you think he’s feeling?
Why do you think he decides to try committing suicide?
Towards the end of the video, you see him laying on the beach having survived the suicide attempt. What do you think he’s feeling at that point?
Do you think he still has anything to live for?

Mother Of Son Who’s Been Shot

What do you think would have been going through the Mom’s mind when she heard her son had been shot?
Do you think she wishes she’d done anything differently?
The doctor advises that her son can either live in a vegetative state, or they can turn off the machines that are keeping him alive. What do you think you’d choose if you were in her position? Why is that?
Do you ever do anything that makes your parents fear that something similar will happen to you?
If so, how do you think this makes them feel? Does this make their reactions seem more proportionate?

Question: What other questions would you ask based on the content in the video? Let us know in the comments below.