When Your Teenager is Pregnant

By Dr. Richard Dobbins
Guest Writer

CBN.com – Currently there are about 1.1 million teenage pregnancies in the United States each year.

That means 2.2 million families face this crisis each year. Almost half of these pregnancies will end in abortion.

In His Word, God's wisdom tells us that the body is not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body (see 1 Corinthians 6:13).

The young men and women who understand this save themselves for each other, so the possibility of pregnancy before marriage poses no threat for them.

Sex outside of marriage, either before or after the marriage, always seriously complicates life.

If Christian teenagers are involved in pregnancies, the parents should be sure that the teenagers understand two things:

First, that their parents love them.

Second, that their parents are deeply disappointed in them.

Abortion should never be considered as an option. In the vast majority of cases, the best option for the baby and the parents is for the child to be placed for adoption in the home of a loving Christian couple.

This option protects the child from being raised with the stigma of being born out of wedlock.

It also gives the teenage parents a chance to finish their education, learn from the consequences of their experience, gain the maturity needed to wisely choose a spouse, and prepare themselves for parenthood.

The weekly radio program "From This Day Forward," hosted by Dr. Dobbins, can be heard online at http://www.dayforward.org/. "From This Day Forward" is a joint production of EMERGE Ministries, Akron, Ohio, and the Media Ministries of the Assemblies of God, Springfield, Mo.