How Not to Get Teens to Take Pregnancy Seriously

ABC Family seems to have come up with a very lame response to recent concerns about teenage pregnancy.  And, as in every American movie of late to confront unintended pregnancy, abortion continues to be the big shameful "a-word" that must not be uttered....  (from the review: "[The pregnant teen's] friends tell her she has options, but abortion is apparently not one of them; that choice is dismissed right away in horrified tones.") (more on that topic here).

NY Times: A Teenage Pregnancy, Packaged as a Prime-Time Cautionary Tale, by Alessandra Stanley:

No one seems to know for sure whether all those high school girls in Gloucester, Mass., had a secret pregnancy pact. But “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” must surely be the collective effort of an anti-pregnancy cabal....

At a time when hit movies like “Juno” and “Knocked Up” celebrate the lighter side of unprotected sex and the celebrity press has recently been filled with belly shots of Jamie Lynn Spears, it’s not surprising that purveyors of pop culture feel compelled to send a corrective message to young viewers. NBC is doing its part with a reality show, “Baby Borrowers,” that assigns teenage couples babies to raise by themselves full time to discover what parenthood is really like. ABC Family chose a more traditional drama format and then promptly forgot who its audience is.