by Karachi, Young Women of Color Leadership Council member and New Media Intern

As soon as I discovered that MTV was to air a special episode of 16 and Pregnant that would deal with abortion, I was on alert, constantly reminding myself and others around me of the date and time that the show would air.  No Easy Decision followed one of the teen moms, Markai Durham, who is pregnant again after her birth control has failed. After many discussions with her boyfriend James, the couple comes to a consensus that an abortion is the best thing for their family. Both parents agree that they wouldn't want to bring a child into this world only to fall short of their parental duties. James in particular, voices his concern of subjecting a child to a lack of necessities, saying that he has been in situations where he had no food, or electricity and that he wouldn't want to put any child through that. Markai, is mostly concerned about the quality of life that her first child will have after a second is born. 

 

I admired the fact that both Markai and James had an equal say in this matter. While James had his reasons for wanting to terminate the pregnancy, he took Markai's feelings into consideration, knowing that she would be the one who would suffer more. He seemed pretty standoffish about the entire situation, and sometimes even cruel, like when he said "I never called that thing a baby." But in the end, he only behaved the way he did because he didn't want to get too attached to a baby he was going to lose. A particularly touching part of the show was a scene after the abortion, where Markai is berating James for calling the baby a thing. She had been reluctant to talk about the way she felt emotionally, but I guess his comment forced her to say something. She said something along the lines of 

As she pointed out, no one with a heart chooses abortion over having and raising a child. It is understandable that it would be difficult to carry a baby to term and then hand it over to someone else to raise as their own. Pro-Life advocates are too busy demonizing the women who choose to have abortions to see the kind of pain they have to live with for the rest of their lives. Laura Echevarria, a spokesperson for the National Right to Life Committee, makes a comment in her column, which I find...there's no nice way to put it so here's the quote:

But the point is that true maternal love for the an unborn child means giving the child life. Abortion is selfish and only takes, it doesn’t give. Sadly, Markai’s second child is gone and that decision will be with Markai for the rest of her life.

In my opinion, this is just cruel. Was Angie Jackson selfish for choosing to terminate her pregnancy so that she could live to take care of the children she already has? Was Markai being selfish for choosing to be able to provide for the baby she already has? After all, what's one more child who will grow up in the foster care system thinking that his mother never loved him or wanted him? 

As one of the other young women on the show said,

"You shouldn't be worried about what other people think because no one knows what it's like to walk in your shoes."

Young women everywhere need to know that they are not alone. We have to work together to banish the shame surrounding abortion. I am grateful to Markai Durham for allowing us a glimpse into her experience. Our bodies are not public property. Sometimes as women we have to make difficult choices that will affect the way the rest of our lives will turn out. 'No Easy Decision' personifies the issue of abortion. You know how they say, "You never know how it feels until it happens to you"? Well, these women know firsthand so Pro-Lifers, the next time you choose to protest outside an abortion clinic, or make a scathing comment, take into consideration the fact that these women are already suffering. In other words, no comments from the peanut gallery. 

Thank you MTV, for airing this episode, controversial as it may be.