MovieChat Forums > 7th Heaven (1996) Discussion > The Teen Pregnancy plots...

The Teen Pregnancy plots...

posted 8 years ago by Blah-7
7 replies | jump to latest

Why so many? We get it! Underage sex is bad! Having a baby before you're even 18 is bad! Why does this show need to bring it up 2 or 3 times a season?

-Matt helps a pregnant teen who steals his car and later disowned by her parents for getting pregnant.
-Mary's boyfriend has a son after his first girlfriend dies in labor.
-Mary's friend had a baby at 14 (fun fact, the above boyfriend hooks up with her)
-Eric and Annie think Mary is pregnant (it turned out to be Annie)
-Lucy dated a boy who later went to France because he was mad at Lucy, slept with a young girl, and now she's pregnant.
-Simon shows interest in a classmate who's sixteen and is already on her 3rd kid.
-Martin (unofficial member of the Camden clan) meets one of Simon's friends at college and out of the blue knocks her up.

I'm sure there's more, but those stick out the most....

In fact, here's a fun drinking game.... For every episode teen pregnancy is brought up as an issue, take a shot. You'll be drunk before the third season starts. XD

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My world is boring; hence the name. :P

[–] Ditto-head 8 years ago

- Simon has a friend who gives birth alone, in secret, and leaves the baby for him to rescue and surrender at the hospital.

- Matt has a friend who's pregnant and being ignored by her father and the father of the baby until Eric intervenes and fixes everything.

Yes, they did like to beat certain subjects over the heads of the audience:

Teen pregnancy is bad.
Smoking is bad.
Drugs are bad.
Abusing (either physically or verbally) your family is bad.
Underage drinking is bad.
Annoying Annie is bad.

(I know I overused "bad" here, but I'm channeling Counselor Mackey right now.)

[–] rosarypliers 8 years ago

The episode you mentioned in which Simon's friend gives birth in secret was quite disturbing. She gave birth in a phone booth, if I remember correctly. Sounds very unsafe to me. Safe haven laws are a good thing, but they are meant as a last option, to prevent people from killing a newborn baby or leaving it behind somewhere. Simon was quite brave when he asked Michaels about the laws and later took the baby to the hospital, making it look like he had something to do with the pregnancy, when he was in fact just being a friend. But giving birth all on your own in an unsanitary environment is quite dangerous, too. Couldn't have Hank somehow pulled the strings to arrange for a delivery in a hospital?

You may cross-examine.

[–] Ditto-head 8 years ago

It was very disturbing. There was an obvious implication that she was from an abusive family and her life was in danger should it be discovered that she was pregnant. Apparently she was too frightened to risk seeking medical attention, knowing that even if she tried to do it anonymously she might be identified and her parents notified.

I liked what Sgt. Michaels later said to Simon in his "think about how that girl must feel" talk. We can assume that she recovered physically from giving birth with no medical attention, but she would probably never get over it emotionally.

[–] rosarypliers 8 years ago

Unfortunately, such cases do exist in real life. Most of the time, when young women say their parents would kill them if they found out, they are exaggerating. But sometimes this is not the case. "Murders for the sake of the family's honor" do exist in certain cultures and are carried out by a parent, a brother, a fiance or a cuckolded husband. It's mostly a "man on woman" crime, but sometimes mothers or even sisters are involved, too. I'm quite certain that every larger city has at least one gynocologist who "restores virginity". If the woman has had intercourse, the usual method is to insert a piece of tissue filled with a blood-colored fluid. The woman is then told to make her vagina as tight and stiff as possible, to ensure rupture during penetration. I wonder if it is possible to do away with the consequences of childbirth. Not all women are "loose" after they have given birth, but you can tell if a woman has given birth vaginally before.

You may cross-examine.

[–] billcary 7 years ago

which episode does simon meet the girl an I don't remember a birth episode for her

[–] dalejrfan01 8 years ago

They were basically saying that if you have sex, you will get pregnant. Nothing about birth control, just trying to teach kids that abstinence is the only option. Which is clearly ineffective

[–] TMC-4 (19460) 4 years ago

Shailene Woodley, who worked for Brenda Hampton on The Secret Life of the American Teenager apparently feels that way too:
https://tvline.com/2020/04/23/shailene-woodley-secret-life-of-the-american-teenager-interview/