Thanks for this immensely thoughtful and fair-minded post.
We’re always so eager to count public figures as good or bad, on our side or their side… but morality demands more from us than that (even, some say, loving your enemies).

Agreed, everyone makes mistakes, I’m assuming she wasn’t planning for a baby, but not everyone accepts them. It makes me wonder if this kind of choice will be more common after movies like “Knocked Up” and “Juno.”

I wonder if Jamie Lynn will perform the even more courageous act of giving up her baby for adoption.
I can’t imagine how difficult it would be to carry a baby to term only to surrender it to another.
But growing up in a loving, stable family with both a mom and dad would be much better for her child than being raised by a young single mother under 24/7 tabloid scrutiny.
In addition to being the most loving thing she could do for her child, it would be an excellent example for other young girls in the same bind.

If sin always led to pregnancy, we’d all be pregnant. I admire those who accept the results of their actions.

I am troubled by the idea that the options open to a young pregnant woman are either abortion or raising the child. We are failing to recognize that it is not a good thing for a teen to parent. Yes, some teens moms try hard, and sometimes their families are incredibly supportive. But why are we not saying that young teens should get married and try hard together? Have we done away with the concept of getting married and parenting?
I am dating myself, obviously, but unplanned pregnancy used to lead to a young couple marrying. Yes, it was hard to make a marriage work when you’re young. But why do we assume that a teenage girl can successfully parent, but we don’t assume that she can make a marriage work?
Maybe I’m missing something, but why are their only two options for unwed moms…..abortion or raising a child born out of wedlock? Surely adoption would be a good option. But why not the option of grow up, take responsibility, get married, and provide a child with two parents?
I have a niece in her 20′s who recently had a son out-of-wedlock. She never considered marrying the father and her parents didn’t want her to marry him. He wasn’t “good enough” to be her husband (low-income family, not college educated). But he was good enough for her to have a relationship that lasted many months prior to the pregnancy. He hadn’t raped her and he wasn’t abusive, and he willingly provided child support even though he only earns $8 an hour. She’s now living with her parents and receiving welfare benefits for herself and her baby even though her dad is a multi-millionaire.
Unplanned pregnancies will happen, but I have far more respect for a couple who chose to marry and parent rather than a teenage who chooses to parent and wants kudos for “choosing life.” I think we need to say that babies deserve more.
Elaine

Elaine, I appreciate those points. In a lot of ways this is an example of what happens we let ourselves get reflexively polarized. You’re absolutely right that the matter of parenting does not boil down to abortion or no abortion.

I have read a couple of newsites about this story, and the comments have been horrifying. Its amazing to me that the act of allowing her child to live could bring on such contempt and judgement. You would have thought she had drop kicked a puppy on live television, not chosen to give birth.

I agree that the girl made a mistake and shouldn’t be continually beat on for it. And it is good that she is owning up to it and not seeking an abortion. But I see it as a tragedy that we would call not getting an abortion “courageous.” She is simply doing what she SHOULD do. There is really nothing extraordinary about that. I just find it sad that doing what is right is now considered extraordinary. What a sad state our nation is in.

I don’t mean to be cynical … actually, I **do** mean to be cynical.
The idea that tabloids wouldn’t have found out about an abortion is preposterous. Quite the contrary to what you say, having the baby is the only way for Jamie Lynn Spears to SAVE her career.
Now, I acknowledge it’s possible that she would have done “the right” thing anyway. (Though I’m glad you, unlike Rod Dreher, acknowledge abortion is not “the wrong” thing 100% of the time.) But the knowledge that she is taking a short-term public relations hit rather than a career-killing one — and that she has all the money she would need to take care of the baby, which most teen mothers don’t, even if she doesn’t resume acting/singing — probably made her decision a whole lot easier.
She seems like she has a sweeter temperament than Britney, so though she’ll have to grow up fast, she might make a good mom. But, um, in the future Jamie Lynn — lay off seeking advice from your big sis.
Not such a good role model …

Dan Qualyle is the single greatest political figure in the history of the United States of America. Women need to be married to the father of their children before their children are conceived. Visit any juvenile hall, mental health institution, street corner of any town in America day or night, or visit a cemetary and look at the dates on the freshest headstones for the reason Quayle was so right.

Why is Jamie Spears “courageous” and black unwed teenage mothers in Southeast DC or any other urban city “pathological?”

Well, anyone named Spears reproducing is a bad thing. I suppose that if at sixteen she is doing the “right” thing by having (as opposed to keeping)in the name of accepting responsibility I would hope that her eighteen year old boyfriend shows a little poise when brought up on charges.
In all seriousness I hope she puts the kid up for adoption. Considering the train wreck that the Spears family has become in recent years she would be sparing the child untold hours in therepy….
Cheers…Phil

I can’t agree that Spears’s choice is courageous — it may be conformist for all I know.
The more courageous choice would have been to refrain from being sexually active at age 16, particularly since she is supposed to be a role model, and probably is and will be a role model for teens who will learn from her example is “cool” to “hook up” with anyone and everyone. And those teens lack the measure of protection from the consequences of their actions that Spears’s celebrity gives her.
Babies having babies is not a good thing. What happens when Jamie Lynn Spears’s daughter becomes pregnant at 13, or when her son makes a 13 year old pregnant? We already have generations of feral children out there — do we really need more?

Once the uproar dies down, I’m sure we’ll have photo spreads of Jamie Lynn showing off her “bump”. Why are we glamorizing out-of-wedlock moms? Surely there is a middle-of-the-road response to unwed pregnancy between the stimatization of an earlier generation and what is happening today. Why can’t we speak out in clear terms that it is wrong to bring a child into the world without married parents, and that when unmarried people conceive a child they have an obligation to either marry or place the child for adoption? No stigma, just a recognition of the reality that a child deserves to be grow up in a two-parent family.
I think to some extent the pro-life groups share some responsibility here for demonizing abortion to such an extent that “choosing life” becomes the only goal. The concern seems to be more with the birth of the child vs. abortion than with the life the child will have later. I’d like to see a two-fold message being sent to young people…..sex outside of marriage isn’t wise, but if you’re going to do this, at least use a reliable means of contraception. I always told my older kids that sex without contraception is trying to get pregnant. The importance of contraception is the message not getting through to young people. And why is the concept of a shotgun wedding so totally ignored today? I don’t understand why the parents of Jamie Lynn and her boyfriend aren’t sitting down as two families and saying these kids need to get married and take responsibility jointly for their child. It just grates on me when I hear people say a pregnant teen is too young to get married, but that it’s ok for her to keep the baby.
I’ve heard a statistic, and I can’t verify it, that something like 40% of the brides in the 1950′s were married at the altar. No reliable means of contraction combined with the reality of human sexual desire resulted in many unplanned pregnancies. Abortion not a legal option, although certainly it was practiced illegally. Couples either married or the woman faced handling an out-of-wedlock birth that wasn’t acceptable in the mainstream community, so she placed the child for adoption. Oh, I’d not want to go back to the harsh way unwed moms were treated, but must we glamorize this? I think sometimes we are rewarding young girls for not aborting, glamorizing their pregnancy as a choice of life vs. abortion, and that we aren’t saying they have no business having a child out of wedlock.
Elaine

Elaine – Bravo!
One other issue is the fact that our society tells teenagers that sex is OK, but that they are still kids. Last statistic I heard was that most people consider adulthood to start at age 26, but the first sexual experience is 15 or 16. Yes, we will try a 13 year old as an adult, but we won’t let him buy alcohol until 21.
We need, in our culture, a firm guide that says “at this age, You are an adult. As an adult, here are your privileges and here are your responsibilities. We now consider you old enough to engage in sexual activity. You have that right. You also have the responsibility towards any child conceived as a result of exercising that right. This goes for both men and women. If you do not marry, then the responsible thing to do is to give the child up for adoption.”
I think 18 is a reasonable age for adulthood to begin. No being tried as an adult before that age and we should expect that people remain sexual inactive until that age.
I agree that single parenting is not in the best for the child. Unfortunately, in rare instances, it may be in the child’s best interest, due to abuse by one or another parent. But overall, a person has a better life if there is a supportive home with two parents.
That said, I do think that Ms. Spears should put the child up for adoption. There are open adoptions now that can work quite well.

I see Thomas Nelson publishers in Nashville have at least temporarily canned Mamma Spears book on Christian parenting. What kind of world do we live in where an evangelical publishing house signs Mrs. Spears to write a book on Christian parenting presumably b/c they know the “Britney’s Mom tells all” subtitle will sell a few million to drivel freaks right off the bat? God help us!

Donny:
I knew Murphy Brown. Murphy Brown was a friend of mine.
And Mr. ex-Vice President … you’re no Murphy Brown.
(PS — You clearly have no clue that the origins to many of the ills you speak of are biological and not societal.)

I agree with Elaine and other posters-that’s there an inherent danger in categorizing this as “courageous” and therefore glamorizing this. I just saw where Lisa Whelchel from the Facts of Life has called Jamie Lyn a “role model.”
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/FallConcert/story?id=4032940&page=1
We should not be teaching children that this is model behavior. There are reports coming out now that Jamie Lyn and the boyfriend were dating when she was 13, he 16 (highly inappropriate) and at some point lived together. If all we can do in looking at this situation is claim some victory because she is keeping the baby, then we are living in a fantasy world and not dealing with the numerous problematic issues (moral, sociological, etc.) facing this pregnant teen and and others (who are not tv stars and loaded with $$) in the same situation.
Let’s also not forget that the pro-life movement should not end with the birth of a baby to a teen mom. These young moms and their kids face the long journey ahead postpartum. They need help with healthcare, nutrition programs, coordination with reputable adoption agencies, counseling, GED programs, etc. Most teen moms that I have worked with are estranged from their families, emotionally immature and do not have tv show incomes or parents that can help them raise their children. We should hold pro-life politicians accountable when they cut programs that help pregnant and unwed teens and their babies.

And let’s not also forget that many teen parents end up (not all, but many) abusing their child (physically, emotionally, or through neglect) or dating men who abuse their child/ren. And then their children grow up to be teen parents, etc.
Pro-life should not mean turning a blind eye to reality, as Jules has pointed out.