Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

33° Evanston, IL
Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

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What If: You were unexpectedly expecting?

Oscar-nominee Juno and Brit’s knocked-up baby sis Jamie Lynn Spears have lately drawn criticism for seeming to condone irresponsible teenage sex and making light of the consequences. Juno’s pick-a-parent philosophy for her baby has been called implausible.

At a university like Northwestern, most of us are more likely to joke about hormonal cravings for ice cream and potato chips than to acknowledge the possibility of unplanned pregnancies. But then it happens to you: a student at an elite university, a “good girl,” who doesn’t sleep around and just isn’t supposed to getpregnant. It’s a difficult choice no matter what, and each comes with its own emotional-and logistical-obstacles.

“The first few days I thought I’d have the kid and change my life around,” says an NU senior who agreed to speak about her pregnancy anonymously. “It never crossed my mind that I had another option.”

The 21-year-old learned she was nearly five months pregnant during winter quarter of her sophomore year while hospitalized for dehydration. Since she’d been taking birth control pills for years, her menstrual cycle hadn’t changed, and she never thought the occasional sex she had with her long-distance boyfriend of two years would get her pregnant.

After considering carrying the pregnancy to term, she realized she had been smoking and drinking – unknowingly putting the fetus at risk – for five months. Less than two weeks after the doctor at Evanston Northwestern Hospital delivered her pregnant prognosis, she underwent a three-day procedure at Family Planning Associates in Chicago, one of the only clinics in the state that performs second-term abortions.

It was painful, the hardest thing she has endured, she says. She doesn’t regret that decision now, in part, she says, because she made it entirely on her own. “I did all this research online by myself. It felt more empowering,” she says. “I think it would have been a cop-out to me to say, ‘You guys need to figure this out for me.'”

She was, however, offered help and more support than she could have imagined. “Once I found out I was pregnant, there were several girls in my (sorority) house or in other houses who told me, ‘Oh, the exact same thing happened to me,'” she remembers.

“There are sexually liberated women here,” she says of NU’s campus culture. “There are a lot of girls you’d never expect here who have been through this.”

Renée Redd, the director of NU’s Women’s Center, says support when making a decision – and after – is important. Both the center and University Health Services provide pregnancy testing and counseling. For those planning to carry a child nine months, whether they plan to keep it or not, there are plenty of local health care outlets providing care.

But not all of them offer both prenatal care and termination procedures. For abortions – both surgical and medical – Redd recommends Planned Parenthood, as she doesn’t know of any nearby hospitals that perform elective abortions. The closest Planned Parenthood to NU’s Evanston campus is in Rogers Park, but that location does not perform medical abortions. It can, however, provide emergency contraception, post-abortion exams, pregnancy screening and counseling.

The Women’s Center refers young women considering abortion to The Cradle, located just steps from campus at 2049 Ridge Ave. The Cradle’s Web site includes photos and autobiographical letters from families waiting to adopt. For those planning to keep and care for their child, the Women’s Center and CAPS can provide counseling and research further resources, such as government aid programs for which young mothers might be eligible.

Partners in Womencare, the closest OB-GYN to which Evanston Northwestern Hospital refers patients, accepts most standard insurance plans like Blue Cross Blue Shield and ETNA, but won’t accept HMOs. Usually with insurance, there will be a co-pay for ultrasounds and the first pre-natal visit, and the rest will be included. There are also self-pay plans for those without health insurance, such as a $4,300 prenatal care package, which does not include the cost of two standard ultrasounds and hospital stays.

“It can be be pretty daunting,” Redd says. “But (the Women’s Center) can help them begin to have a conversation about what this would mean for their lives.”

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What If: You were unexpectedly expecting?