The Stigma of Abortion and Pregnancy for Filipina Students

Filipina students and Pinay teens who come face to face with an unplanned pregnancy ask the same questions as Pinays in their 20s and 30s : Do I want this baby? Can I afford to raise a child? How will this impact my life? Am I ready to be a mother?

The Filipina teen then considers abortion as an option to her dilemma. She is influenced by where she lives, her religious beliefs, her relationship with her parents, access to family planning services, and the behavior of her peer group. Her educational level and socioeconomic status also play a role. Those who finally give in to such indecision do not want their lives changed by the birth of a baby, could not afford and immature to raise a child.

Whether or not a young Filipina opts for an abortion often hinges on her parent's knowledge and/or participation in the decision-making. Those whose parents are unaware that their daughter is sexually active pose an additional obstacle that makes a difficult decision even more stressful.

As the shame of early pregnancy lingers, abortion is one way for a Filipina teen or young Pinay to hide her sexual activity and pregnancy from her parents. High school-aged girls who 'kept their babies' were the subject of gossip and pity among students and parents.

Nowadays teen pregnancy has become almost commonplace in many schools, colleges and universities. The pressure to 'keep it a secret' no longer exists as it did in past generations. More and more Filipina students are choosing to give birth, and a type of reverse pressure now exists, with many teens believing that teen motherhood is a desirable situation. Thus for some teens, the decision to have an abortion may be a choice that is criticized by peers who only see the excitement of being pregnant and having a baby.

It takes maturity for a teen to realize she's not mature enough to give birth and make a lifelong commitment to a child. Abortion remains a controversial option, and a pregnant teen considering abortion often finds herself in the proverbial situation of being between a rock and a hard place. But when finances, life circumstances and rocky personal relationships prevent a teen mother from being able to raise her child in a loving, safe, and stable environment, terminating a pregnancy may be her only viable choice. How odd! How shameful! How painful!

Related articles

• 16 And Pregnant (juniorcelebs.com)
• Close Monitoring May Help Troubled Teen Girls Avoid Pregnancy (nlm.nih.gov)
• Teenage Pregnancy (breadnroses.ca)
• Fantasia Barrino: 'If I Could Have Waited, I Would Have' (celebrity-babies.com)
• Scandal of the girls as young as 12 having abortions every year (telegraph.co.uk)
• Ready or not? (news.bbc.co.uk)
• The One About The Myth Of Virginity And The Damage It Does. (the-one-about.blogspot.com)
• Pre-birth decision making (thiswomanswork.com)

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