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Don't Demonize Teen Mothers

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 5, 2008

Regarding "Kids Having Kids Is Now So Normal" (Commentary, June 29):
Teenaged parents in the United States are hardly a phenomenon. Until very recently, it was common for teenagers and young adults to have children. They were not called "kids having kids." They were simply "youth."

Nature designed the body, especially the female body, for fertility in youth. Fertility starts to wane in the late 20s. During the 1940s, '50s and '60s, teenagers often married right out of high school or even before graduation. Pre-wedding pregnancy was very common.

I graduated from high school in the early 1960s. Pregnant girls who did not marry the fathers of their babies were expelled from school and sent away. They were hidden from society and, in some cases, the entire family moved to another town to escape the gossip. Nothing happened to the fathers of the babies. They were considered to be "sowing their wild oats." This was considered "normal" for males, who "couldn't help themselves."
Joe Brown seems to be suggesting that such persecution, discrimination and cruelty against young mothers for the act of bringing a life into the world is appropriate "punishment."

Life as a single parent is difficult, but persecuting mothers is hardly a step in the right direction. It was wrong in the 1960s, and it still is wrong.

KAREN KOTTMEIER

Parker, Colo.

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