A teenage pregnancy can be disastrous, but Tina's lot is better than some, because her parents (although estranged) are supportive. Any hostility they have is directed at Tina's on and off boyfriend Ray (Daniel Kountz), a chain-smoking lout. Tina also has a role model in Laurie (Margot Demeter), a young and unhappily unmarried mom struggling to pay her bills, attend school, and tend to her eternally fussing toddler.
But Tina has obstacles to overcome. Ray is unreliable, sister Rachel is resentful, and Tina has morning sickness. Tina despairs at her increasing girth, and is predictably immature at times. Yet she also looks forward to having the baby, which she plans to smother with love. Both Tina and Rachel feel love starved, presumably due to raging hormones and their parent's separation.
How others will see it. From those relatively few who have encountered this movie, reaction to Fifteen and Pregnant is decidedly mixed. Partly, this is due to male prejudice against The Lifetime Channel, which programs for women in their thirties and forties. The natural audience for the film is women in their teens to early twenties, whose interest is in Tina, Laurie, and Rachel. Their story is told, but the parental angst of Evie and Cal also gets plenty of play, which teens may find tiresome. Some young viewers are also annoyed that Tina and her fellow teens act so selfish and shallow, behavior markedly different than the friendship, fun, and fashion usually exhibited by television teens.
How I felt about it. Fifteen and Pregnant has an honesty of emotion and a depth of character unusual for a movie, made for television or otherwise. There is a sense of reality that most films are missing, because those tend to frame characters and situations in strictly cinematic tradition.
For example, your typical teen movie has a pretty and vivacious girl as the lead. But she isn't pregnant, and in fact, her personal life is usually virtuous, since she sets boundaries on her hunky boyfriend. She often has a rival, though, another pretty woman consumed with some degree of jealousy and petulance. We, the viewer, are expected to identify with the heroic lead and watch her as she ultimately triumphes over her misguided and unsympathetic foes.
Tina is pretty, but not in a fashion model mode. She is neither vivacious nor virtuous. Like all teens, her conception of the world is still fuzzy, which is why she sees pregnancy as an opportunity to give and receive love now, to a baby whose ownership is unquestioned. She has no rival, her boyfriend has to be written off early, and there's no one to blame for her pregnancy but herself. Undoubtedly, she should have known better.
The ideal solution is an abortion. In fact, that is what both Evie and Cal first suggest. The actress Ally Sheedy had an abortion at 16, hid it from the public for many years, and was rewarded with a fabulous film career throughout her teens and early twenties. Jamie Lynn Spears, also pregnant at 16, kept her baby, and it appears to have killed her once highly promising career.
An abortion allows the woman to continue her life without interruption. It's bad news for the completely innocent baby, but following the logic, it was a mistake for the baby to have been conceived in the first place.
But what if the mother doesn't want an abortion? The best choice then is adoption, because it allows the mother to resume her life upon delivery. But most mothers bond so deeply with their unborn child that giving it up (much less having an abortion) seems unthinkable. It's only natural.
One question is, what would Tina have accomplished if she had never gotten pregnant. She would have graduated high school, but appears unlikely to have gotten through college with a degree (e.g. nursing or accounting) that would have paid off. So, if Tina raises a child, it's not as if the world will suffer without a rocket scientist. And who knows, the child could become a rocket scientist, since he has immediate family support not only from Tina, but also her two parents.