New TV Drama Focuses on Teen Pregnancies
Two weeks after a Massachusetts fishing town was thrust into the national spotlight over reports that a group of high schools girls there took part in a "pregnancy pact," pro-family groups set aside the endless speculation to make a point: pregnancy pact or not, teenage pregnancy is the plague it is today because of bad culture, bad schools, and bad values.
"If the school is bending over backward to accommodate teen mothers and encouraging the promiscuity that leads to it, these girls would have no choice but to assume that premarital sex and motherhood are acceptable social norms," the Family Research Council expressed in a statement a week after reports about the high school surfaced in the media.
In the midst of this culture, a new TV drama series about the life and trials of a 15-year-old girl who gets pregnant will no doubt generate special attention.
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The series, "The Secret Life of the American Teenager," is produced in part as a collaboration with the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, and from the creators of "7th Heaven." It stars Shailene Woodley, who is forced to confront her situation with help from her friends and family without the option of pursuing abortion, and features a myriad of different characters including a Christian couple who maintain a vow of abstinence and sexual purity until marriage.
As the series brings attention to today's problem of teenage pregnancies, pro-family groups will likely use the new series to highlight the importance of abstinence programs in today's culture.
"On teen sex, it's time to stop treating the problem and start preventing it with the only birth control that is 100% effective-abstinence," the FRC said last week.
"The Secret Life of the American Teenager" will begin airing Tuesday and run for an initial 10 episodes.
According to recent studies, teen pregnancy rates are rising again after momentarily decreasing from 1990s levels.
