Answers To Your Questions Following Jenelle's Abortion On 'Teen Mom 2'
By Amy Kramer of The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy
Jenelle began Season 5 of "Teen Mom 2" clean and sober, but also pregnant again. Her estranged husband was in jail and she’d already decided their relationship was over. She didn't think it would be fair to Jace if she had another child, plus she didn’t have her own place or the means to take care of someone else at that point, so she decided to have an abortion. Her mom thought that ending the pregnancy was a wise choice and drove her to the clinic -- which was almost 200 miles away -- and stayed in a hotel with her the night before.
The kind of abortion Jenelle had involves taking medicine instead of having surgery, and it is available only in the early stages of pregnancy (usually up to nine weeks). The process includes taking a pill at the clinic, then another medication in the days afterward, and then a follow-up appointment to make sure everything went as planned. This kind of abortion is NOT the same as the “morning after pill” or Plan B. The morning after pill is for use in the hours/days immediately following unprotected sex and is intended to prevent a pregnancy.
Jenelle was fortunate to have her mother's support throughout the experience. One important thing her mom told her was that once the pregnancy was terminated, Jenelle needed to get on birth control. When Jenelle was talking to her friend about the pregnancy earlier in the episode, she wondered why she didn’t make Courtland wear a condom -- a good point, but there are methods of birth control that don’t involve that kind of commitment in the moment. For example, the IUD and the implant are effective for years and require no maintenance once they're implanted. The Depo shot lasts for three months, while the ring and patch require only monthly maintenance. Of course, only condoms protect against sexually transmitted infections, but when it comes to preventing pregnancy, there are many options available.
There’s a lot to think about with regards to Jenelle’s situation, and a lot of you had questions following the episode. Here are some facts on abortion from the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health research and policy group:
+ More than half of all pregnancies in the U.S. are unintended. About four in 10 of them end in abortion.
+ At least half of American women will have an unintended pregnancy by age 45. At the current rates, about one in 10 women will have an abortion by age 20, one in four by age 30 and three in 10 by age 45.
+ More than half of all abortions are to women in their 20s. 33 percent are to women ages 20-24, 24 percent are to those ages 25-29.
+ Teenagers account for about 18 percent of abortions. Six percent are to girls ages 15-17, 11 percent are to girls ages 18-19. Girls younger than 15 have less than half a percent of the abortions performed in the U.S.
+ About six in 10 abortions are to women who already have at least one child.
+ Slightly more than half (54 percent) of women who have abortions say they were using some kind of contraceptive method (usually condoms or the pill) in the month they got pregnant. However, three-quarters of pill users (76 percent) and half of condom users (49 percent) say they used their method inconsistently (skipping pills or not using a condom every time, for example).
+ Although there are about 1,800 abortion providers in the U.S., 87 percent of all U.S. counties don’t have one. More than one-third of U.S. women (35 percent) live in counties without an abortion provider.
+ In 2009, the average amount paid for a non-hospital abortion at 10 weeks gestation was $451.
+ Thirty-five states currently enforce parental consent or notifications laws for minors seeking abortion. (Find out what your state does here.) Even without specific parental involvement laws, six in 10 minors who have had an abortion say at least one parent knew about it.
+ In 2008, there were 1.2 million abortions in the U.S., down from 1.3 million in 2000.
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