'Teen Mom' Jenelle Evans Defends Abortion: 'l Didn't Use It as a Method of Birth Control'
Jenelle Evans, one of the stars of the hit MTV reality show "Teen Mom 2," recently spoke out in defense of her controversial decision to abort the baby she shared with soon-to-be ex-husband Courtland Rogers in the season 5 premiere of the show.
Evans recently said in an interview that she doesn't want her fans to think she has a relaxed attitude toward abortion, noting that she does not see the serious decision as merely a "method of birth control."
"It's the first abortion I've ever had," Jenelle told OK Magazine in an interview published Jan. 21.
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"I don't use it as a method of birth control like everyone thought I did," she continued, adding that she hopes her fans will not hold her decision against her as the season progresses. "I just think that it's really important that they see the progress I make and not just dwell on the abortion the whole season."
Season 5 opened with the dramatic and controversial decision to go through with an abortion. Evans' decision received criticism from pro-life viewers who felt she was acting too nonchalantly about the life-ending procedure. One fan tweeted to another teen mom from the show, Kail Lowry-Morroquin, asking if she was "sickened" by Evans' decision. Lowry-Morroquin was pregnant with her second child during the filming of season 5.
Lowry-Morroquin responded by saying she cannot judge Evans for her actions. "Everyone goes through different things. I'm pro-choice and I wasn't in Jenelle's shoes."
Still others have expressed their disgust at Evans' decision. "Jenelle Evans' abortion breaks my heart inside!" tweeted one fan, Ava Golightly. Another viewer tweeted: "This teen mom, Jenelle Evans is bragging about her abortion only to get pregnant right afterwards. Can someone please take her away? #prolife."
Evans is reportedly pregnant with another child after having her abortion in the season 5 premiere of "Teen Mom 2." She chose to abort the child without telling the father, soon-to-be ex-husband Courtland Rogers, who was in jail following an arrest for possession of heroin. Evans currently has one child, Jace, and following her abortion she became pregnant with another child, whose father is her current boyfriend, Nathan Griffith.
Evans has defended her controversial decision to have an abortion in previous interviews, telling Hollywood Life that she didn't think it would be a good decision to have a child, especially because the child's father was in jail.
"It's just like, all the [expletive] we'd been through was not good [for] having a child," she said. "I didn't know what to do. I had to get an abortion, I had to. [My ex-husband] wouldn't be there for me, his family wouldn't be there for me. My mom would be, but it would just be me as a single parent and that's not what I want."
Rogers has also spoken out about Evans' decision to abort his child without telling him, saying it "breaks my heart" that he wasn't included in the decision-making process.
"It's not fair that I found out about the pregnancy on a 'Teen Mom' commercial! I didn't know anything until I got out [of prison] because I was trying to stay away from the drama. It breaks my heart," he said in his first post-prison interview with Radar Online. "It hurts a lot inside. The fact that I had a kid and I didn't even know I had a kid."
In response, Evans said that Rogers did know she was pregnant when he was in prison, and that he's just looking for a "sob story" so people will pity him.
