Alice and Craig’s son, Dylan, told them recently that his girlfriend, Tara, was pregnant and was going to have an abortion. “I tried to talk her out of it,” he told his parents one evening as tears spilled down his cheeks. “I told her I’d help support the baby if she would keep it.” Even though Dylan pleaded with Tara repeatedly, she had made up her mind. She was college bound in the fall, and she and her parents didn’t want the “inconvenience” of a teenage pregnancy. Eventually, Dylan and Tara’s relationship couldn’t survive the stress, and they stopped seeing each other.

In the 1950s and ’60s, the number of teen pregnancies was far lower than it is today. Most girls who became pregnant out of wedlock either settled for a hurried wedding or were sent to a home for unwed mothers, and the baby was put up for adoption. But along with the sexual revolution came a growing acceptance of pregnant single women. Today it’s common to see photos and film clips of unwed celebrities sporting a “baby bump.” Famous couples live together and have children together, but they have absolutely no intention to marry.

Teens who become pregnant face the tough road of how to handle school, work, finances, and relationships. But abortion does not solve the problem or whisk it out of our lives. For these young women adoption is a redemptive alternative. Let’s pray for how we’ll handle these life-altering decisions.