Anything but Normal - Melody Carlson [51]
“And we need to do it in love,” he added.
“Of course,” Mrs. North said. Then she went right back to her previous diatribe, telling them about a popular TV show with a pregnant teen in the cast. “For all we know, teen pregnancy could be the latest fad. It’s time we as parents draw the line.”
On and on they went. It seemed everyone wanted to be heard, but there was hardly a dissenter in the group. Well, except for Sophie. Not that she was saying anything. To be fair, it wasn’t that she disagreed—in fact, many of the things they were saying were true. It was just that they didn’t get it. Not fully. Sophie had seen how the girls needed the pregnancy center. And she couldn’t imagine where the girls would be without it.
Finally she couldn’t stand it anymore. “May I say something?” she shouted out during a brief pause.
“Of course.” Pastor Vincent waved Sophie forward. “It would be great to hear a teen’s view.”
Sophie could feel the eyes of her friends’ parents on her. She suspected they weren’t pleased to see that she was here or that she was speaking out. Not that she cared. “Some of you know that I wrote a human interest piece about the pregnancy center for our school paper. Maybe that’s why some of you are here.” She glanced at Kelsey’s mom. “But what you may not know is that I spent time with these girls. They are real girls who are going through a very difficult time, and I just don’t—”
“Of course they’re going through a difficult time,” Mrs. North interrupted. “They are teens and they are pregnant. That can’t be easy. But it’s a result of bad choices and a lack of—”
“Excuse me, Mrs. North,” Pastor Vincent said. “But I believe Sophie was speaking.” He turned to Sophie. “Continue, please.”
“Okay.” She looked evenly at her listeners. “This is my question for all of you. What would you have these girls do? Where would you have them go? Would you lock them away? Would you take away their right to an education? Would you punish them? Tell me, what would you do to replace the pregnancy center?”
“You don’t seem to understand our concerns here, Sophie.” This came from Carrie Anne’s mom. “We acknowledge that you’re a good journalist, and we appreciate that you brought this problem to our attention. But you just don’t seem to grasp what’s at stake here. You don’t seem to fully understand.”
“What do I not seem to fully understand?” Sophie could feel her heart pounding. She knew she was close to losing it.
“Okay.” Mrs. Vincent stood. “Let me tell you about Hawaii.” Sophie blinked. “Hawaii?”
“Yes. Did you know that the state of Hawaii has teen pregnancy facilities in most of their public schools?”
Sophie shook her head.
“And did you know that the state of Hawaii has the twelfth highest teen pregnancy rate in the nation?”
She shook her head again.
“So you see, if you build it, they will come.”
“Huh?”
“If the school provides a teen pregnancy facility, if they create a comfy, cozy place for pregnant teens to gather, if they choose to accommodate pregnant teens, and if they offer free child care, special classes, counseling, and all those little perks, naturally the girls will think that it’s perfectly acceptable to get pregnant. If you build it, they will come.”
The room erupted into applause and cheers, and for a moment, Sophie was totally dumbfounded. But she was not ready to back down just yet. “So, are you saying that girls will get pregnant on purpose? Or that the girls I interviewed in the pregnancy center wanted to get pregnant?”
“I’m saying that the school is sending the message that it’s okay. They’re making it easy for girls to treat sex casually, to get pregnant, and to have babies. They’re making it easy for these girls to have it all. Easy breezy.”
“You think those girls have it easy?”
“Remember what happened in Gloucester not that long ago,” Mrs. North said suddenly. “That high school had a pregnancy center, and the next thing you know they had a regular pregnancy epidemic on