“Honestly, Mom … chances are he won’t stay with you. What happens to me?” wonders a little girl on a poster that can be seen on the New York City subway lately. Under the pseudo-sarcastic phrase is a scary statistic: “90 percent of teen parents don’t marry each other.” The poster is part of the most recent controversial, headline-grabbing move by Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration — a campaign against teen pregnancy.
The tangible effects of such a campaign are decisively negative and only serve to further isolate and stigmatize those young mothers who cannot turn back the hands of time. While it is important to highlight the alarming trends of poverty among teen parents and their children, these tactics put all eggs in the prevention basket and callously disregard the necessity of improving the quality of life for young mothers and fathers. What kind of misguided message are we sending to those individuals who need positive support most? That they are inherently and forever sub-class citizens? That we are infallible and they should have known better? The hypocrisy with which many claim to care about living standards for impoverished youth and yet champion these shame campaigns is frankly disgraceful and anachronistic.
Yet, stigmatization of teen parents is not a new tactic when it comes to deterring teen pregnancies- — in the 1920s, when, for example, an average of one out of six African American babies born in Chicago was to an unmarried couple, young parents faced severe social pressure and non-traditional backlash. Decreasing teen pregnancy rates is a common goal for most of the nation, and reverting back to old approaches that focus on shaming young mothers and fathers have clearly been ineffective, as teenage pregnancy rates have not decreased in the last century. The proper way to combat this problem is empowerment rather than embarrassment.
Instead of focusing on negative ad campaigns, Bloomberg should concentrate on broadening sex education, contraception availability and support systems for young parents. These posters will not serve as a lasting defense against teen pregnancy, and the threat of stigmatization will not scare teens out of having premarital sex. We challenge any of the proponents of such advertising to ask themselves whether they made any life-altering mistakes during their adolescence, and whether it was reinforcement or disgrace that ultimately allowed them to move on.
A version of this article appeared in the Mar. 26 print edition. Email the WSN Editorial Board at [email protected].
