When did 14 come to be portion of adulthood? In several ways, young teens are large children, and as the pregnant 14-year-old character on “Grey’s Anatomy” dramatized last Thursday, they can easily make seriously lousy life choices.
Jenny—not yet mature enough to be called Jen—finds her method to the emergency room at Seattle’s Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. She complains of abdominal discomfort while sneezing and coughing. This sounds strange to Dr. April Kepner, that agrees to do a bodily exam. It is just As soon as Jenny unzips her sweatshirt that she acknowledges her visible pregnancy, leading a lot more straight to a diagnosis.
Jenny’s mother suddenly arrives, having tracked Jenny’s mid-school day whereabouts via cell phone app. Afraid that her mother will certainly lecture, “This is not exactly what we do,” Jenny makes April promise not to tell her mother concerning the pregnancy. Free of hesitating, April agrees. She even goes so far as to introduce Dr. Arizona Robbins, a fetal medicine specialist, to Jenny’s mother as “an abdominal doctor.”
Keeping Parents in the Dark
This set-up is focus grabbing, however three narrative threads that follow might unnerve parents. First, Jenny’s medical issue calls for surgery, however she declines it, lest her mother learn concerning her pregnancy. April and Arizona debate exactly what they can, and should, tell Jenny’s mother. Arizona admonishes April that Jenny is their patient, and that they cannot legally tell Jenny’s mother that her kid is pregnant.
Purposely misleading or withholding relevant good health article from a Moms and dad appears enjoy a recipe for trouble.
On that note, Sex, Etc., a website that markets itself as “by teens, for teens,” tells Washington residents: “all of visits to Title X clinics are confidential for teens and adults. They will certainly not share your records Along with your parents or your family doctor (or anybody else) Free of your permission.”
That message presumably reassures teenagers, that may otherwise stay away from all of medical care, however it is likewise problematic. We don’t allow 14-year-olds drive, get cigarettes, or vote, so why must these girls make decisions concerning pregnancy Free of parental guidance? Granted, any sort of teenager that finds herself in this situation most likely has actually a fraught partnership Along with her parent(s) or guardian(s), however purposely misleading or withholding relevant good health article from a Moms and dad or others trusted adult, that cares enough to prove to up, appears enjoy a recipe for trouble.
Thankfully, Jenny’s situation isn’t so common among actual American teens. The Focus for Ailment Control’s statistics for teen pregnancy just begin counting young mothers at age 15. Further, pregnancies among 15-17-year-olds, the younger subset of teen mothers in the CDC’s data, dropped 11 percent in 2014.
Angry Parents Are the Least of Girls’ Worries
April recognizes something is amiss in Jenny’s situation and desires to redress it. However, she noticeably never ever presses Jenny concerning a second serious concern: the identity of Jenny’s boyfriend. Yes, this was among several storylines and Jenny’s not a recurring character, however the writers ignored a few of the many necessary questions that a concerned adult may have actually raised at this point.
Jenny and her mother might decide it’s wisest to relocate beyond their antagonistic partnership and boost this kid together.
For example, that is this boyfriend? exactly how old is he, and was Jenny coerced or raped? Also, where is he, and does he even understand Jenny’s pregnant? Viewers learned the answers to none of these questions.
The 3rd troubling piece was the largely ignored matter of Jenny’s baby’s future. Everyone proceeds as if it is obvious that Jenny will certainly Preserve her baby. No one ever expressly asks this 14-year-old, that has actually done zero prenatal care to date, whether she intends to Preserve her child.
Given “Grey’s Anatomy’s” tendency to portray abortion in a positive light, it was striking that no doctor stated it to Jenny. On the flip side, no one ever asked Jenny whether she would certainly think of giving her baby game adoption. Why? Jenny and her (seemingly single) mother, that likewise became a mother at 14, might decide it’s wisest to relocate beyond their antagonistic partnership and boost this kid together. However, adoption would certainly still have actually been a logical and compassionate question for April to raise.
Motherhood is a gift. It must be cherished. however it’s likewise radically life-altering and something a woman must feel prepared to accept. A 14-year-old is not yet mature enough to be called a woman, allow alone manage the challenges of motherhood.
No 14-year-old must ever have actually to make adult decisions enjoy Jenny initially did, especially not alone, due to the fact that as grown up as teenagers might insist they are, deep down, they’re not prepared to be adults. If we’re performing our jobs as parents, we shouldn’t ask them to be.
