Excerpt
Genesis - Troubled Waters

Hundreds of thousands of young women were teenagers and pregnant. What made them weak, so vulnerable, that they would even consider having sex at their age? And without any protection! Why did they take that chance? Surely they knew what could happen… and it had.

How could so many young women have been so naive?


“... unwed mothers... had to deal individually with personal shame and blame; rejecting parents and boyfriends…” – Wake Up Little Susie: Single Pregnancy and Race Before Roe v. Wade – Rickie Solinger (1992) What would they say, the fathers of the unborn children who grew inside of them? Would they help? Would they stand beside the young woman? Would they claim it was someone else’s child, refuse to be involved or just walk away? There were no mechanisms in place to force them to be responsible for their part in these criminal conceptions.

This was “back then”… the 1950s, 60s and 70s… the Age of Aquarius, rebellion, social upheaval, the Vietnam War, rock n’ roll, women’s lib and the sexual revolution. But the sexual revolution didn’t apply to these young women. They fell into the abyss.

Sex oozed out of their radios, rubbed on as they slow danced, teased and tempted through books and movies. Remember the 1959 movie, “A Summer Place?” Sex was everywhere but birth control was not. There were no pills, no IUDs and no sex education in their classrooms! Most parents ignored the warnings. They were too embarrassed to speak frankly and openly with their daughters. They felt helpless to protect them from this fate... from “unwed motherhood.”

These newly pregnant, young women disappeared from school. One day they were there, and the next day they were gone. No one knew where they went but everyone knew why they left. They got pregnant. They probably thought unwed pregnancy could never happen to them.

The denial was great, staggering actually. The panic and shame were so huge that the mind would do just about anything to avoid acceptance of the truth. And they went to great lengths to hide those gestating truths! Their dresses got tight and then tighter. Safety pins allowed for an extra inch here and there. Sweaters covered up the zippers that would no longer zip. Some must have been thankful for empire-style dresses that were so popular at the time.

Parents assumed the problem was just adolescent chubbiness--a temporary metabolic condition that their daughter would outgrow. If pregnancy entered their minds, it was quickly dismissed. They didn’t believe it could happen to their daughter. Unwed pregnancy was unthinkable.

These young women struggled desperately to hide the nausea many of them experienced, running to the bathroom with claims of the flu. They wondered how long they could continue with the lies. Apprehension grew with each passing day.

Thoughts of the dreaded parental confrontation were agonizing. Face-to-face or by phone? How to say it? “Mom, Dad, I’m in trouble.” No more needed to be said. Just that one, short sentence. How did they react? With the expected recriminations? Screaming, crying, name calling? “Whore! Slut! Tramp! How could you do this to us?” Some daughters were thrown out and warned, “Do not bring that bastard baby back to this house!” But some parents said, “Don’t worry, we’ll help you.” The problem for these mothers, learned much later, was that the help that was offered to them was far, far worse than keeping their babies and dealing with the social consequences.

“Whether she remains in school or leaves is often decided by others. In most instances the plan for the baby is predetermined. Often these matters are decided without her being able to state her own preferences.” – Helping Unmarried Mothers – Rose Bernstein (1971) Many sought out the fathers of the soon-to-be-born babies to give them the news. However, some fathers were never told and never knew. As a result, the newly pregnant sinners found themselves alone, ashamed and terrified.

Decisions were made quickly. The pregnant girls were either expelled from school or removed by their parents who then scrambled with decisions of where to hide their daughters, along with their embarrassing secret. Much was lost overnight: classmates left wondering, missed proms and graduations without names called or diplomas offered.

“… social discrimination… manifests itself … in the reaction of the unmarried mother to the circumstances which deeply affect her social position…. If she is still of school age she may be suspended. If she has a job she may lose it and may encounter great difficulties in finding another, precisely at a time when she is in greatest need of moral and financial help.” Status Of The Unmarried Mother: Law And Practice, The Social Position Of The Unmarried Mother, Part Two, Report of the Secretary-General, Commission on the Status of Women, United Nations, New York (1971) Some soon-to-be mothers became instant prisoners of their own homes, hiding in attics or bedrooms when company stopped by. Some were shipped off to distant relatives with claims of school difficulties and/or emotional disturbances. Many, however, were “visiting an aunt” which was the common catch phrase for interment in a maternity “home” which was nothing more than an “unwed mother” detention center.