Ortiz 1

Paulina Ortiz

Judith R McCann

English 1301-129

12 October 2022

Decisions, Decisions

Imagine people chanting “Abortion is healthcare, we want it now” or “Bans of our

bodies” because there are people in the world who do not want women to have complete

autonomy. Since 1973, people, mainly women, have been battling for rights to their own bodies.

Back then, it was Roe v. Wade, and today it is women against conservative individuals. The

times have changed, yet some people do not acknowledge different perspectives. The

advertisement manages to convey the inner turmoil that comes with the topic of abortion through

the use of the character's mannerisms, facial expressions, and text.

When looking at the photo, the first thing that draws your attention is the baby bump.

From the way the character is holding their stomach, you can see that she is aware of the life

growing inside her. Right away, it is easy to see that she may feel an attachment developing

towards the baby, but there is still that feeling of frustration inside her mind because of how
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young she is. Choosing whether or not she will abort the baby will leave her with a bunch of

what-ifs. The viewer can assume that she had just found out about her pregnancy because of the

text, yet she already had a visible bump and a developing baby. This shows a glimpse of the

future and what could be if she chooses to keep the baby, but the decision is up to her. What the

ad is trying to convey is that a choice is important. It should be given and for it to be up to the

women in the situation to decide what is best for them.

Furthermore, the teen’s face shows worry in the picture. You can infer from the visual

text that she is anxious about the upcoming decisions that she will have to make regarding her

pregnancy. The image is trying to convey that people deserve to have a choice. They need to be

able to decide whether or not if they want a baby in the near future. If the teen has no choice and

must keep the baby, what will she do after? How will she provide for it? What about her

well-being? Her education and job in the future? If she is forced to keep the baby, she may not

have a chance at the future she planned. She will, more than likely, be forced to get a job if her

parents do not support her. She might will have to find a place to stay because her parents are

disappointed in her and, in turn, kick her out. What if the father is not a part of the picture? Most

teenage boys do not want the responsibility that comes with having a child to care for. They tend

to have a mentality where they believe that they do not need to be part of the baby’s life. They

can disappear whenever they want because they do not want something tying them down, and the

responsibility falls back on the mother. As a matter of fact In fact, Research shows that one out

of every five teenage mothers receive some form of support from the father and around eighty

percent of them need financial support from the government for a while. Teen pregnancy, or any

type of pregnancy for that matter, will always cause a lot of questions to arise. Once they have

chosen how they will answer them and predict how it will affect their future, they can finally
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enact the said plan and rest easy knowing that they are prepared. Stress and worries are a given

when it comes to situations like these. The only way to ensure that you are making the best

decision is when the decider has considered all the feasible options and chosen what is best for

them.

Moreover, what further expresses the girl’s worry is the text. By saying, “My mom is

going to kill me,” repeatedly, the billboard is highlighting how parents are not always supportive

of their own children and their decisions. Even though it was irresponsible of the girl to end up

pregnant, should these young women really not have a support system during these challenging

times? Not even from their parents? There have been many situations where the parents shame

them for getting pregnant and end up kicking the daughter out, berating her every chance they

get. In the video, “Mum Kicks 16-Year-Old Daughter Out Of The House After Finding Out She Is

Pregnant,” Myrka, a sixteen-year-old, was kicked out of her house for getting pregnant. In the

interviews, where she sat down with her mom throughout the video, you could see how

everything affected her. She was upset, rightfully so, with how her own mother could kick her

out of the house and act as if nothing happened. Multiple times she would start talking about

getting kicked out, and whenever Myrka would say, “When my mom kicked me out…,” her

mother immediately interrupted and said something along the lines of,

Let’s get one thing straight. I didn’t kick you out, you kicked yourself out. From the

moment you started taking part in intercourse, you were setting yourself up to get kicked

out. I’m not going to take care of a kid that is not mine and don’t need another one in my

house. (TLC uk,“Mum Kicks 16-Year-Old Daughter out...” YouTube, 17 Feb. 2021,)

From reading those words, you can immediately tell that there was one, if not many insults,

hidden in there. That is not the only clue though. Just from the way that Myrka would start to
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tear up and try to hold her tears in, you could see how all of that has deeply affected her,

especially since it came from her own mother. These types of situations make you wonder what

goes through a parent’s mind when they decide to start, per se, bullying their daughter or even

expelling her from their home because of her actions. Why are they so consumed by their own

emotions and beliefs, to the point where they cannot even realize that they are hurting their own

flesh and blood, someone that they gave birth to and were there with every step of the way? Why

would this be any different? In any case, teen pregnancy is an emotional rollercoaster that people

should not be going through alone. Situations like these make it much harder to handle and

reintroduce the question of whether or not abortion really is as bad as some people make it out to

be.

Overall, being pregnant as a teen is not an ideal situation. Even if it is the consequences

of your actions, you should be able to have a choice as to whether or not you want to keep the

baby. The billboard should give you an insight to the other side of this ongoing argument if you

have not already tried to understand it. The character’s mannerisms, facial expressions, and

speech help get the message across. If not for the ability to choose what you want to do with your

body, think about how bad it could have been for those kids. Maybe abortion is not so bad. That

is all just a choice.

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Works Cited

Sarah Magee. “Menu.” Sarah Magee RCL2, 21 June 2015,

https://sites.psu.edu/sarahmageercl/2015/06/21/kairos-advertisement-explanation/.

Sawhill, Isabel V. “What Can Be Done to Reduce Teen Pregnancy and out-of-Wedlock Births?”

Brookings, Brookings, 28 July 2016,

https://www.brookings.edu/research/what-can-be-done-to-reduce-teen-pregnancy-and-out

-of-wedlock-births/ .

“Mum Kicks 16-Year-Old Daughter out of the House after Finding out She Is Pregnant:

Unexpected.” YouTube, 17 Feb. 2021, https://youtu.be/8xcrhoXAT48.