Teen Mom’s Amber Portwood is currently under investigation for abusing her ex boyfriend, Gary Shirley, on camera in three separate incidents. Amber and Gary have split up, and Amber has taken up with several different guys, at least two of whom have criminal records. Amber’s two year old daughter with Gary, Leah, was briefly declared a ward of the state after Amber was charged with domestic violence. Amber has since earned back her custodial rights by moving into a new apartment and buying a bed for the toddler. To say Amber is an unfit mother is an understatement. She rarely interacted with her daughter and seemed to be either ignoring or yelling at her in footage shown on MTV.
All of that is background for this news that Amber is pregnant again and doesn’t know who the father is. It could be her current cage fighter boyfriend, it could be the guy she dated before him who just got out of jail (he wasn’t a sex offender and that was mistaken identity at least), or it could be Gary. She’s rooting that it’s Gary, since things worked out so well with him the last time.
Just days after regaining custody of her daughter Leah, Teen Mom’s Amber Portwood has discovered she’s expecting another baby!
In the Dec. 27 issue of Star, on newsstands Wednesday, we reveal the 20-year-old MTV star took a home pregnancy test on Dec. 4 — and it came back positive! “Amber is scared to death about what’s to come,” an insider tells Star. “She adores Leah, but she doesn’t really want to be tied down with another baby.”
Amber’s baby secret was almost blown on Dec. 10 when she had her first bout of morning sickness. Luckily, her boyfriend, Clinton Yunker, in her hometown of Anderson, Ind., didn’t catch on. “He’ll freak out if she’s pregnant.”
To make a bad situation worse, troubled Amber has been with so many guys in the past three months, she has no idea who the father could be. Amber is hoping that her ex-fiancé Gary Shirley turns out to be the father, says the insider. “She thinks they’re meant to be together.”
[From Star Magazine]
Amber had a pregnancy scare back when she was with Gary, and the two of them went to the doctor together and were so relieved to hear that she wasn’t pregnant again. It’s not a shock to learn that she got knocked up by some random guy, it’s just sad. Amber is a terrible mom and I doubt that she’ll get as much help with her kid from the next guy as she did from Gary.
Update: In Touch features Amber on the cover, with confirmation from a “friend” that she’s pregnant. Plus they claim she slept with 8 guys in 2 months.
Here’s a very orange Amber out with her boyfriend, the cage fighter guy Clinton Yunker, on 12/9/10. They’re also shown putting up Christmas decorations with Leah the next day while filming for their show. Amber’s ex Gary, Leah’s dad, is shown holding her. Credit: Fame Pictures. In Touch cover via CoverAwards
Thanks to Kaiser for the tip!
oh yuck. I don’t watch this show, but from reading this post I can see she’s a real winner.
wow. white trash getting pregnant again. shocking. just get an abortion and then get sterilized. we dont need anymore white trash populating the planet.
I have to agree with kwoww as harsh as it sounds. Or she could find a nice family to adopt BOTH of the kids.
Cripes. Face like a slapped arse.
My God, that little girl is beautiful!
How sad this is for her. She’s definitely not going to get the attention she needs now.
Utterly disgusting & here it is being glorified in the media, inspiring other young attention whores to follow in her footsteps. The future of planet Earth looks bleak.
O God no, I feel sorry for her daughter, and for the possible baby.
He’s a cage fighter? What’s the cage made out of? paper?
She’s making a fool of herself for all the world to see.
She needs to be locked up, the kids adopted, and that show off the air.
What a vicious cycle we are seeing played out here. Heartbreaking.
I’d be curious to know if she was taught abstinence or protection in her high school. Though I guess it wouldn’t matter if you didn’t go to class and I imagine she had a less than stellar attendance record.
MTV will probably give her a new show as a reward. Too sad for words.
This is such a revolting story on every level. We all see such wonderful and beautiful potential in that child’s face and in 20 years this story will be about her if she isn’t taken away from that white trash.
Sad.
wow, ever hear of protection? if you are going to sleep around at least make sure you use something…she wanted this to happen because she likes the attention i bet, otherwise why would you already have scares and continue not to use something???
white trash? she’s rather orange.
This is tragic. A perfect example of why we should make birth control readily available and free to anyone. I’m sure Amber doesn’t have insurance, since she does not have a job. Consequently, BC would be expensive for her. So she choses not to buy it, and to become pregnant again – another child growing up in a home where there is nobody capable of taking care of her. Babies deserve to be born into families where their parents are ready and willing to put the child’s needs before their own. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Leah was declared a ward of the state; even if its temporary, it means that taxpayers are going to have to pay for judges, lawyers, foster parents, and on and on.
Give Amber, and other impovershed young women free birth control, and sit back and watch the teen pregnancy rates drop.
so hope this isn’t true…sadness for everyone involved. hope amber will get the help she so desperately needs.
I work with girls like Amber every single day and it’s a pitiful thing, but #1 Kwoww is sadly correct. They need to be sterilized because for some reason they seem to look upon their pregnancies as a badge of honor. The children are completely inconsequential, and they don’t maintain even minimal health standards while pregnant. I know there are a lot of “do-gooders” who will be appalled at the idea of forced sterilization, but the only other alternative is court ordered, implanted birth control. No child deserves to be born into this kind of life.
Uh, that Michale Cera lookalike is a CAGE fighter???? BWAAAHHAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!
It’s bad enough that she’s been with so many guys she’s not sure who the father could be, but it stands to reason that she didn’t use protection with any of them?
WTF?
It bites me that people like her are so cavalier and careless about getting pregnant, but don’t ‘want to be tied down to another child’, when they are women out there who can’t have kids and are desperate to have one.
ETA: Poor Leah.
I’m with Lisa Turtle, but don’t just give free birth control add on some self-esteem classes because obviously these girls are lacking it on every level.
No, Turtle they won’t- these girls are GIVEN free birth control. They WON’T use it. And they just shrug their shoulders when you ask them why.
Wow, check out that spray tan!!! WOW!
16.asiont:
December 15th, 2010 at 10:12 am white trash? she’s rather orange
———————————
HAHA orange trash 🙂
Oh my lord.. I am sure MTV is paying this unemployed single mother, Amber a huge amount of “change” to keep her story going. In-fact, it’s stunts like this that keep the MTV viewers tuning back in to the show, to see this mother, Amber and her baby.
Believe it or not, it’s not the babies fault of why she is here or what age Amber was when she had her. Any child is a gift from God !
MTV needs to invest some of the money they are paying Amber “in to counseling sessions” to find out why Amber doesn’t “feel” inside she deserves to treat her body with respect and why Amber is searching for “love” in all the wrong men.
This girl is a total trainwreck! I vascillate between wanting her locked up for a very long time and feeling bad for her. She needs to get HELP. This is what happens when a child is raised in an unstable environment; she just repeats the cycle of neglect and abuse that was modeled for her. I honestly believe that Amber doesn’t know HOW to have a functional family, because she has never seen one.
But she needs to get help – she’s an adult now and she’s responsible for ending that cycle, so Leah has a chance. It’s not too late, but the time is fast approaching when Leah will be permanently affected by this. She will start having memories of her out of control environment.
Maryjalane – The shrugging is the most frusterating part OF ALLLLL! It’s like, WHADDYA MEAN YOU DONT KNOW!?!?!? Sometimes they even mock it, sometimes they have been told complete falsehoods in regards to the efficacy, but most often, they just DUNNO.
What a sad sad sad world we live in.
Dear Lord… this is so sad.
Here we go again. 🙁
Birth control! It’s just not that hard. This girl should’ve gotten an IUD when she had Leah.
god damn woman..use the pill or close your legs!
This chick is ridiculous. I do not believe there is any way that she can handle having another child, no matter who she is with. She can barely take care of baby Leah.
Clinton Yunker? CLINTON YUNKER? No wonder this guy has to (cage) fight for his honour.
“Utterly disgusting & here it is being glorified in the media, inspiring other young attention whores to follow in her footsteps.”
I totally agree & the poor little child, she is absolutely beautiful and innocent, yet what chance does she have in life with an uneducated trailer trash mother like hers, just too sad for Leah
It makes me so angry. I can’t even watch this show. Here we sit, with an empty nursery, just aching to take care of a child, and this ignorant heifer just keeps cranking out kids she doesn’t want. It’s really hard to believe in God anymore.
What happened, did her Welfare money and food stamps run out? Time to squirt out another mouth for the taxpayers to feed.
EDIT: What an ignorant, irresponsible woman. You would think after one unwanted pregnancy, she would use birth control.
Cage fighter! Ha-he must be going to the same cage fighting training as Kip!
I can’t even comment on Amber-she disgusts me.
@ MSat
I really feel for you, and for others in a position like yours. Fertility is wasted on the young. I hope you fill that nursery some day, one way or another.
Woah. I see self-tanner and ultra-light pink lipstick in a whole new way. And..not a good way.
ITA with Shannon. Chances are Amber has NO CLUE what a normal functional family is like (hint: cameras following you around is not normal). Amber needs counseling & parenting classes, STAT
@MSat: I’m so sorry to hear that. My parents couldn’t have kids either and they were able to adopt both my brother and myself, and I’d have to say I’m pretty awesome. I hope things work out for you.
As for Amber; some girls are just cavalier towards birth control. It has nothing to do with money… I have never been pregnant as I am obsessively careful yet a casual acquaintance has been pregnant 3 times in the past 5 years. She just doesn’t seem to take it seriously.
@ Marjalane & others…
Personally don’t think forced sterilization is an awful idea, if reserved for extreme cases… the problem is we used to sterilize women in America. If a woman was deemed “promiscous” (essentially having a child out of wedlock) or failed a mental competancy test the state would order her uterus removed. This is inhumane for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that its very easy to co-opt a state ordered sterilization system and use to futher another purpose, for example Eugenics – only allowing certain people who have “superior” genes to have children (Hilter did this in Nazi Germany).
There is nothing wrong with little Leah’s genes. I have seen Teen Mom and Leah is an intelligent, curious little child who is very aware of her mother’s abusive, neglectful tendencies. Leah cries when her mother attacks her father; when Amber lays around the apartment all day, Leah tries to wake her up, climbing into bed with her mom to get her attention. The problem is Amber’s parenting. At the very least, Leah should be living with Gary full time.
Something needs to be done, but Amber is an adult, and as such she needs to make these hard decisions for herself. I just feel that as a society we can make certain choices more readily available for young women. We can chose to support politicans who support family planning funding. If we want to stop women like Amber from having more children, we can put money towards subsidizing birth control, condoms, IUD, and even abortions.
Amber needs to see a therapist who does more than simply prescribe her Xanex. Mediciations are there to assist, but a person must make their own effort to overcome their hardships. Adding another child to the mix is a mistake, especially when she’s popping prescription pills all day. Amber can’t care for a healthy child, let alone a second child who may be born with special needs due to her mother’s drug abuse.
Jeez Louise, can somebody take her to the ASPCA and get the spayed?
Ugh I can’t believe Amber got custody of her child with all the footage of her crappy ass parenting. We have a screwed up child protection system here.
I agree Lisa Turtle. There are ways that can be used to help these situations, but sterilization is not one of them. That simply opens too many doors to horrible consequences.
And simply making birth control freely available does not mean anyone will use it. The sad angering fact is that so many just don’t *care*. They don’t want to wear condoms, don’t care to force themselves to take the pill regularly, & simply don’t have an IUD put in.
Not nearly enough blame is put on BOTH men & women who create children irresponsibly. Women are often the only ones who receive the negative attention (as they are the ones who end up pregnant) but both should be just as responsible. It takes two to create a child.
MSat… That is what I question the most in life. How so many people who never had any business being parents… still manage to have them, usually without even trying… while people responsible, loving, and who would be amazing parents, try and try without success in so many cases. My aunt tried for 10 years before adopting. I truly hope you’re blessed with the family you deserve, whichever method you go.
@Marjalane, I too deal with people like this on a daily basis. I was a teen mom, but did my best to move forward in my life and do the best I could for my son. 7 years later, I can say I am proud of what I accomplished at a young age. With that said, Ambers know how difficult it is to care for 1 child at a young age, why would she allow herself to get pregnant again? These are the types of women that will never learn, and continue to raise adults in our society in dysfunctional families. I will not watch this show, and have no interest in doing so, mainly because I am not going to make Amber’s life easier by giving the show higher ratings for a fat check. Get a normal job like the rest of us.
“A perfect example of why we should make birth control readily available and free to anyone.”
Well, it is readily available, and for that matter it is free if they would bother going to their local Planned Parenthood or Health Department office.
Or they could do something crazy, like not have sex if they don’t happen to have protection on hand. I know that’s a shocking notion and some people would think it is ridiculous to even suggest that someone practice restraint, but it is actually an option.
Believe me-there are some people to whom you could hand-deliver their birth control every morning and they still wouldn’t bother to use it.
Everything is sad and wrong about this. Everything. That poor child.
This butt-fugly trick is doing this for more media attention. She got a taste and now thinks if she gets preggo again…the fame will continue.
That little girl should have a hat on if it’s cold enough to snow.
Best recommendation for mandatory sterilization I ever saw. Having kids is a privilege, not a right. Abuse it and lose it.
She needs her uterus revoked.
It’s so sad how she treats little Leah. What a precious little girl. Amber shouldn’t have gotten custody of her again just because she bought a bed. Really? She needs serious anger management for a long, long period of time and that should have happened before she regained custody, if ever. However, I also know that being a ward of the state is no picnic for kids either. I feel so bad for Leah and the baby-to-be.
And btw, she should stop tanning because she looks like bacon.
@Turtle: ITA agree with ya on that one. My mother in law was a juror in Indiana (the same state Amber lives in) for a horrific child abuse case-this young man was being accused of abusing his girlfriends children when she herself was very obviously the abuser. Her boyfriend who was on trial was a little “simple minded” and she totally threw him under the bus. She had been charged with child abuse before. The day the trial was over and they had found him not guilty, they found out she was pregnant AGAIN! She has three kids, everytime one got taken, she’d have another. After all the photos they showed of the injuries and looking through the other case files from previous charges, my mother in law didn’t sleep for weeks after that case.
Leah is ridiculously gorgeous, such a beautiful baby. You would never believe that she was the child of two swamp creatures.
Birth Control Poster Child!
I was a teen mom, but when my dad told me that, according to statistics, I would give birth to another child within 18 months I said “No way; not me.” And guess what? I DIDN’T!! Part of me was that contrary, but an even bigger part of me was SMARTER than that. It’s not rocket science; clinics provide free birth control, Medi-Cal & other gov’t programmes do to.
Honestly, how stupid and careless can a person be?
@Samihami: You are absolutely correct. Free birth control is subsidized by our government. Contraceptives tend not to work if you don’t bother getting them or leave them in the medicine cabinet or whatever.
It has been available for YEARS and the teen pregnancy/STD rate has changed little. Clearly that is not the solution. Maybe people learning a little self-respect to either abstain or use contraceptives consistently (which still would leave a method failure rate) would help.
I find it interesting that people automatically assume that when someone gets pregnant they weren’t using protection. It has a method failure rate, people. The efficacy rate drops even further when you factor in user failure (the method being used incorrectly).
@girl you’re missing part of the equation. The Bush administration funded abstinence-only sex education and in fact the teen pregnancy rate has RISEN for the first time in a decade. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.
Of course birth control is going to fail if you were never properly educated on how to use it, and instead just told “dont have sex.” That’s simply not realistic, as the teen pregnancy rate proves.
I am comfortable asserting that if more kids received comprehensive sex education BEFORE they become sexually active (so, starting around 13) and then get a refresher every two years, we would see method failure rate and teen pregnancy rates decrease significantly.
It is true that some people just don’t care. But I think a lot more were robbed of a good sex education because of the former administrations disastrous and misguided policies concerning sex education.
Again and again, this comes down to education, and it’s not just sex education. People with bachelor’s degrees are far more likely to wait to have children until they are married and financially stable. People who are educated in proper parenting are far less likely to be abusive. If we want things to change, we NEED to spend more money on education.
@girl: Birth control for the most part does not fail, people fail to use it correctly. Yes there is the occasional one off that happens to people who are taking the medicine properly but for the most part if people get pregnant it’s because they are inconsistent. I think it’s totally fair to assume that a girl who has been pregnant twice in a few years (and had another scare) is not practicing safe birth control.
If you can’t remember to take a pill every day, then get the ring or an iud.
Or, don’t have unprotected sex with 8 different men in the same week. Just spit-balling here.
I think a large part of it is the “abstinence only” theory that is drummed into young people’s heads. It makes it seem like birth control isn’t a useful or real option, that the failure rate is so high that using no protection is basically in the same zone as using it. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve heard “oh birth control doesn’t work for me.” I’m like what?? How is that possible?? Condoms have like an 85% success rate and the pill is like 99.99% effective when they are used correctly. Some people just don’t even bother because they think it just “doesn’t work.” Sure, the methods are 100% so some women will become pregnant regardless of their use, but there’s no way that all these women I’ve heard say this (“it doesn’t work for me…”) Are members of that small percent. No way.
Let’s not forget that Amber was likely raised in a very similar way to how she is raising her daughter. That is why I made my comment about the cycle being continued. It is not an excuse, but it does make her behavior a little more understandable. How can you rise above your circumstances if you don’t know any other way to live??
Yes it is sad, and yes it is awful. But Amber once WAS Leah and in many ways, still is. I choose not to forget that.
*arent 100%
Oh, so sad. My comments have already been more eloquently stated, but I’ll just second that 1) sterilization is not a solution given the really horrible ways it was deployed in the past 2) if people didn’t watch, this wouldn’t be on tv (which wouldn’t mean it wouldn’t exist, but it wouldn’t be valorized and rewarded. See also Bristol Palin) 3) the men she is sleeping with are also responsible, wrap it up, guys! 4) Education is the answer to breaking the cycle. My mom ran a teen parent program to keep teen parents in school in order to get their high school diplomas. The vast majority of them were the children of teen parents who had dropped out of school.
And let’s remember that our education system current is completely under attack (not to mention the abstinence only policies that the Bush administration as well as local and state governments supported/support).
FFS. Too much trouble for her to take a pill daily, huh?
She is UGLY. Inside and out. I ordinarily don’t call people ugly, but it’s her personality that makes her so. If she weren’t such a turd, she would seem more physically attractive.
I’m shocked. Shocked.
and yet she is rewarded with fame, money and a TV show. i don’t know which is worse: the irresponsible teenage mom, the teens who emulate her because she’s in the spotlight or the adults who watch her on TV and helped create this mess.
she should put her birth control pills with the xanax i bet she doesn’t forget to take that
problem solved
Uhg! Some one mentioned the ‘SHRUG’!!! The shrug that happens when you ask a teen a common sense question and they just SHRUG. It pisses me off almost as much as teenagers being in control of their Foodstamp cards and buying chips and flats of soda at HEB. Let me tell you a story…
I was in the 7th grade when I met a girl who was a friend at first, we’ll call her Stupid. We continued our friendship, and in the summer before we started Lanier H.S. here in San Antonio, she met this 18 year old guy and gets knocked up. Right away. They marry ‘for love’ and before the both of us started the 9th grade she was already knocked up and married. We were 14. She has the baby and they get their own unit in the Alazan courts, in front of Lanier. They paid only $30 a month in rent and had a ton in foodstamps. I know because I was there. After she had the 1st baby, she was given an option on BC because she was on Medicaid and it was free. She chose the pill. When they gave it to her they gave her a little timer, like a kitchen timer, that went off when it was time to take her pill. When we were at the unit(they arent houses and I refuse to call them that) she would just turn it off. I would ask her why she didnt take her pill and she would just SHRUG and say ‘later’. She got pregnant again. Then dropped out of school. I would still visit her. She had another. Three kids by then. I asked her why she didnt switch to my birth control(i started Depo at 16) and she would just SHRUG. It fucking killed me. I stopped seeing her. Last I heard of her, she popped out another one, divorced, her ex-husband refused to take care of the kids, Stupid lost custody of them, and now they are living with her ex-husbands parents. And she continues to breed….
The sad truth of this story? This plays out again and again, no amount of money thrown at them will stop girls like her from breeding, working the system, and generally fucking up their lives. Lisa Turtle and bleeding hearts like her can throw a ton of money at them and they still wont use it. I made it out, so did my sisters, so not all hope is lost for girls born into the system by mothers who cant stop rutting like pigs. And I dont feel sorry for them. Not a fucking ounce.
You Guys CRACK ME UP!!!
She looks like bacon,
She should have her uterus revoked
The baby is too cute to come from swamp parents…
HAHAHAHAHA
MSat, I feel deeply for you.
MSat, have you considered adopting? It’s difficult but not impossible.
I don’t know what is so offensive about abstinence! I was extremely promiscuous during college and ended up having a baby out of wedlock (and put up for adoption), and I truly regret it. God didn’t give us these bodies to just hand out to whoever happens to want them at any given time.
Teach these kids about their self-worth and how precious their bodies really are, and stop just tossing condoms and pills around like candy to them. Kids today also have VERY few good, moral role models, and most everything on TV/movies/videogames promotes sex.
Sorry, but this subject just really hits home with me, as I wouldn’t wish my “history” on anybody.
Hospitals give you free birth control -at least where Im from- and no, the rates are still pretty high.
@OnceWas: Abstinence doesn’t work for everyone. Did you have access to birth control when you were in college? If you did, you might not have gotten pregnant with a baby you could not take care of. This is in no way meant to condemn you for making a very tough decision which was probably in the best interests of everyone concerned. I’m asking because when I was in college neither birth control nor abortion was widely available and a lot of young women became pregnant with babies they had to give up for adoption.
Shannon & AlarmJaguar – very well said. Education is the only way to break the cycle. How can we expect kids to know about safe sex if they are never taught anything but absitence? Learning about birth control options is not self intuitive, just like literacy is not self-intuitive. We need to support educational programs.
hatsumomo – Like I said before, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I’m not saying that everyone will make the right choice, but I believe it is essential to educate young people on their options and let them make choices for themselves, rather than exacerbate the problem of accidental pregnancies among young women. A child born out of planning, when the parents are ready and want to be parents is born vastly ahead of a child born to Amber. Guess who is more likely to end up in prison? Hint: The child being taught abuse. Prisons cost taxpayers billions each year.
In the book Freakonomics, economists showed that 15 years after Roe v. Wade there was the first ever drop in crime rates; those rates continued to drop. One theory is that the unwanted pregnancies among women from low socio-economic status were being aborted, rather than being carried to term and born into a cycle of poverty that leads inevitably down a path of crime. (The women from high socioeconomic brackets could always find doctors willing to perform abortions for the right price).
For 8 years, from 2000 – 2008, George Bush’s education department exclusively provided funding for abistance education; nothing else. Funding for abstinence doubled from 2000 to 2003, to $120 million. By 2008, funding was at $176 million. In 2006, for the first time since 1990, the teen pregnancy rate rose. And it’s been rising since.
The statistical reality is that there are more teen pregnancies in states that allow only abistence sex education in the public schools:
1. Mississippi
2. Texas
3. Arizona
4. Arkansas
5. New Mexico
6. Georgia
7. Louisiana
8. Nevada
9. Alabama
10. Oklahoma
@Cheyenne – in my case, I did have access to several forms of birth control, but it was just easier and cheaper (so I thought) to cross my fingers and hope for the best. Yes I was stupid then; I’d had sex ed from my school and my parents, but I convinced myself that “early withdrawal” worked every time. Well, it obviously didn’t in my case.
But I do disagree with your statement that abstinence doesn’t work for everyone. It is a 100% guaranteed method of birth control, and since there is no law forcing teens (or anyone) to have sex before marriage, it absolutely COULD work for everyone. I know my beliefs sound old-fashioned, but I do see things a lot differently now that I’m older! 🙂
I know I will ruffle some feathers with this, but here goes:
Stop giving welfare, food stamps, wic, housing vouchers and so on to women who keep having babies that they expect the government to pay for!
If someone knows they will be financially rewarded every time they have a baby, do you think they will stop having them?
I was married into a family that did this, and they could never understand why I wanted to wait until hubby and I were a little better off financially before we had a child.
Why does nt this moron just get her tubes tied? It’s so sad that MTV is glorifying these young girls who get pregnant by giving them their own show.
“Abstinence doesn’t work for everyone.”
Sure it does. 100% of people who practice abstinence are free from the danger of unwanted pregnancies and STDs. I think what you meant to say was more along the lines of:
“I wanna do what I wanna do whenever I feel like it and it’s my right no matter what”
…without regard for any possible consequences.
In any event, there is no reason teaching abstinence is a bad thing. There is no tragedy in saving oneself for marriage, or at least saving oneself until they are a fully grown adult person. And don’t try to say that all teenagers are getting it on. It is simply not true—there are plenty who don’t. Sadly, they are the ones who get teased and picked on for being virgins. Yet it’s the ones who make irresponsible choices that get the publicity, or in this case, their own TV show.
It’s not the fault of parents that teach their kids abstinence that causes the teen birth rate to go up. It’s the attitude that anything less than instant gratification is incomprehensible that is the problem. Along with rights go responsibilities, but people seem to want to forget about the second part.
@OnceWas – It’s not realistic to teach abstinence ONLY. It’s fine to include abstinence in a comprehensive education, but if you only teach abstinence it has been proven time and again in studies not to work. Humans are sexual beings. We have an instinctual urge to have sex, and simply saying “don’t do it” clearly does not work.
In fact, kids who are only taught abstinence are MORE likely to get pregnant (or get STD’s) than kids who got a comprehensive sex education. Why? Because the abstinence kids don’t know what the heck they’re doing.
It is not right to force your worldview on others. It’s ok to suggest abstinence and share your story as a cautionary tale, but leaving people in ignorance will ensure that they make ignorant decisions.
If abstinence only education works, why are teen pregnancy rates rising? Because it doesn’t work.
It’s the same reason the War on Drugs has failed. “Just say no” is a naive idea and a disaster in practice. Look no further than your local prison to see that our prison population has exploded since the War on Drugs began. If it had been effective, shouldn’t prison populations be decreasing by now?
Also, and I’m not trying to start anything here – I totally respect your beliefs- but not everyone believes in God or the waiting until marriage to have sex. And not everyone believes that sexual exploration as a teenager is a bad thing. In fact, many countries operate their sex ed programs from this perspective (Norway and Sweden specifically), and they have a lot of success with it. Low teen pregnancy, low rates of sexual violence, and kids who are not embarrassed or afraid to ask adults about sex.
I just think it’s time to stop cheating our nation’s youth out of a decent sex education. We need to start using empirically proven methods to make sure we’re helping them keep themselves safe.
“It’s not the fault of parents that teach their kids abstinence that causes the teen birth rate to go up. It’s the attitude that anything less than instant gratification is incomprehensible that is the problem”
Not true. Studies (many of them) have tracked kids who received comprehensive sex and and kids who received abstinence only. Guess who ended up with more pregnancies and more STD’s? It wasn’t the kids who received comprehensive sex ed.
Also, we’re not talking about what parents teach their kids. Parents are free to teach their kids whatever they want. When it comes to schools and government-mandated curriculum, there is no place for abstinence only education if we really want to make an impact on lowering rates of pregnancy and STD’s
wow. what a class act.
@samihami – I agree 110%.
@shannon – I wasn’t trying to force my view on anyone, just to express it. I know it’s an unpopular view now-a-days, but I have another theory about why teen pregnancy is on the rise. Teens are exposed to TONS more sexually-explicit input now than when I was a teen. Peer pressure and the media are relentless on our young people. Casual sex, unwed teen moms, experimentation, these are all promoted as the “cool” thing (as evidenced by shows like the one in this article).
I do agree that teaching ONLY abstinence and ONLY ‘just say no’ has a real flaw. The flaw is that there is no replacement given for what you’re saying “no” to. Telling a kid not to do drugs or not to have sex but offering no alternative behaviors is a sure way to invite disaster.
@78 – you’re right, though I’m not sure what the alternative is. There is way, WAY too much working of the system. Those of us who have postponed having kids because we couldn’t afford it, get looked at like we’re freaks by these moochers who just give birth and count on the system to hold them up.
Shannon,
You’re right about everything that you are saying. I appreciate how articulate and understanding your argument is.
I just want to warn you that a certain poster with pork in their name will go after you all night, and she does not live in reality. There is no logic there. She believes in La La land where she can tell everyone how to live their lives based on her particular religious code. Her written word is barely decipherable, what with all the failed grammatical constructions.
America’s public education system is ranked 57th in the world, and you can see it among some of the false and unsubstantiated arguments put forth on this website. One problem is that people think their personal “theories” which are supported by blind faith are the same as scientific theories which are the result of countless studies and experiments.
She looks like a serial killer. How in the world was she given that child back, over the father? Just because she buys a bed, it doesn’t mean that she’s not going to still act the way she did when she was filmed. Disgusting excuse for a human, imo.
I just saw an article that said that some girls are getting pregnant in the hope that they’ll land their own t.v. show, too. If MTV and these other networks would put all the money in a trust for the child(ren), instead of paying the parents, maybe it wouldn’t be so enticing.
?samihami:
December 15th, 2010 at 12:21 pm “A perfect example of why we should make birth control readily available and free to anyone.”
Well, it is readily available, and for that matter it is free if they would bother going to their local Planned Parenthood or Health Department office.”
…………………………….
Absolutely right-anybody can go to Planned Parenthood -no questions asked and get free birth control…
I blame the rise in teen pregnancy on the religious right/pro life lunatics and the ‘abstinence’ programs….
None of them care about these children once they are born-only while they are useful as a political tool…
@OnceWas…I know exactly how you feel. I put my son up for adoption almost 3 years ago, and even though part of me knows it was for his best interest (his father has some serious anger issues and a major drug addiction) there’s a part of me that regrets having to give him up. Thankfully, it’s an open adoption and I see him at least twice a month. Let me tell you something though that you may not have heard a lot of: What you did was a completely selfless act of love and compassion and I commend you for it! You did what you thought would be the best thing for your child. It takes one hell of a woman to realize that and to make that decision.
And the other side of the coin is none of these “fathers” are gloving up! If men would do that unwanted pregnancies would drop.
Well looks like announcing she is pregnant again worked. MTV says she will be on another season now. She says she hopes Gary is the dad because she thinks they are “meant to be”. He enables her to be a bully. Holding her hand to go to court to get the baby back when he should be taking her away from her. Baby Leah is a cutie though poor thing.
@MSat,best wishes that a blessing is sent your way soon. Keep the faith and I hope you have a happy holiday.
Lisa turtle you are talking like Amber lives in a hut in Africa, of course she has access to birth control as all the other good good for nothing lazy ass people on welfare, they just choose not to use it, besides she gets money from the show, which might well be why she got pregnant again, to keep it going
It is so sad how stupid people with no money adore to pop up tons of kids who do the same later in life, the world is fucked up for that reason
I hope in the future people will have a device, lock if you will, put on them at birth, then when they want to be parents they can take some tests and do some courses, only they could have the device unlocked and be able to have a kid
Making a human should be a privilege not a right! End of story
Hmm, this seems to be pointed at me. My apologies if you feel Im singling you out, but your name was the only one I could remember on short notice. And keeping in trend with the way arguments are done here, its just easier to lump the bleedinghearts together rather than just taking on each poster. So truly, sorry for using just your name, but I really meant everyone with posts similar to yours. And by the way, no one likes grammar nazis. Its a celebrity blog for chrissake.
But, let me point out, you state those on the lower -economic ladder are most likely to fuckup\not seek out birth control. You are aware this Amber chick makes 60k a season right? Thats 4x more than what I was making at her age and I still managed to seek out and fund my Depo Provera shots. And its pretty much a given she signed up for another season. So that argument, in this context, is nil. Which brings me to another point. At 16 I knew then I didnt want kids, so I got the shot. And from then till now(Im about to be 26), I still go in every four months on the day, and get my shot. You know why? Because I dont want to take the chance of relying on my ‘grace period’ and getting knocked up. I wont risk any chances of fucking up my birth control. Its readily available, I pay only $95 bucks a shot, so its cheap. So why isnt this chick on it? My guess is that she is stupid, like my former childhood friend Stupid, who does exist and did breed four children she dosent take care of. And for someone like you, who would rather cover your ears and say girls like her are made-up, its a sad look into your insight. You would really rather just claim I made her up? Or that living in the courts is not reality? I can only assume you grew up in a middle\upper class family with both parents and perfect friends to have such limited insight into grim realties of the poor. And since I came from there,(Cassiano Courts here!) I would consider myself much more knowledgeable about these matters than someone who just relies on what she reads on the news and gossip sites.
And in all, good day to you! Im off for the night!
taping for “their show?” they re coming back??
yeah
Amber has been making 60 a yr but not for long–its not like she is a professional or something..
I’m sure he will or has un through that money–she is the LAST person that nds to get pregnant again..
I’m 19 and graduated from HS about 2 years ago and i grew up in Canada so im not sure what happens there in the US but i can say that how i was educated about sex and STI’s was great.
When we were showed that video and had discussions about puberty and that stuff was in the 4th grade i think and the sex ed came after that, there was a huge emphases on STI and HIV prevention not just pregnancy. Even in HS the school nurse would come in and tell us about condoms, the pill and other methods of avoiding STI’s and pregnancy.
Where i live i havent seen any girls pregnant or with kids. I can’t imagine going to a school that taught abstinence, that would have led to different decisions than i have made or that my friends made like waiting cause we dont want some nasty infection or a child that we are not prepared for.
Giving teens all the info lets them make informed choices, and i cant believe Amber is pregnant again!
BAN MTV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah tell men she didnt get pregnant again to stay on the show and keep getting a paycheck.
MTV should be forced off the air for this trashy show that 100% takes advanatge of young, uneducated pregnant girls who see it as quick fame & money.
What a beautiful little girl Leah is! If this is all true and Amber is actually pregnant with a second child, well I weep for that baby too. Amber needs to be spayed.
I am shocked at what i have been reading here
in Australia , well i can only speak for New South Wales we have comprehensive sex education from kindergarten to year 12 . When i was at school it was only from year 7 (first year of highschool). We are given demonstrations on how to use condoms, babies are brought in with their mothers to speak on motherhood the joys and the dramas.
I am a single mother but i was 33 when my daughter was born and 37 when my son came along and i thought i knew what iwas doing how wrong i was . I have drummed into my daughter career, marriage THEN babies and it seems my pontification on the subject is reaping its rewards. She has heard of older girls at her school becomming pregnant and never returning and she also tells me she dosent want to go what i go through, their ‘sperm donor’ broke his promise and has never seen his son. Anyhoo, i am amazed that abstinence only is taught there .
i hope she gets all the love and support she truly needs to make better decisions for her life and her family.
Im glad smart readers are finally seeing MTV’s fault in this! Would she have gotten pregnanty again if no show/no story line to need to be able to be asked to be on for the next season?? I doubt it.
Amber is immature and MTV is handing a young, uneducated girl with MANY issues, tons of money and fame. OF COURSE she would get pregnant again.
MTV pretty much paid her to get pregnant again!
This show needs to be off the air. Who in the world watches this terrible show anyhow?
Hey, LisaTurtle, just curious why you think my views are based on religion? Seems like you are projecting your feelings onto me. Please point out exactly where I posted anything whatsoever to do with religion.
My views are based on common sense. Don’t have sex until you are ready to handle the possible consequences. If you do have sex, use birth control. Protect yourself from pregnancy and STDs. Wait until you are in a committed relationship rather than spreading it around. And yes, abstinence is a good idea for underage minor children, no matter how grown up they think they are. Remember that rights also come with responsibilities.
In the future, when addressing me or talking about me, I would appreciate it if you would stick to the facts, not the made-up scenarios in your mind. Please don’t project your preconceived notions upon me and make statements about the workings of my mind. Thanks!
i agree with banning MTV….what is it really doing for the world?
to all of you struggling to conceive, just don’t give up. my mother had a hard time & didn’t have kids well into her 30s. and she had 3 of us!
keep practicing & keep healthy. i send my best wishes to all of you who are still waiting to fill up your family.
@JustMe – Thank you for your uplifting words! I have never made an attempt to find my child (he’d be 26 now) simply because I was just too scared to, but my husband knows all about the situation, and if we ever opened our door or answered our phone and it was my son asking to meet us, we would both accept him with open arms and be completely honest and real with him.
I thank God for whoever adopted him, and I know in my heart he has had a better life with them than I could ever have given him! And bless you for your decisions and staying a part of your child’s life! 🙂
filha da mae ela fica bateno nas criança filha da puta
@ jennifer, we’ve got awesome sex ed here in victoria too, so i think it’d be safe to say the rest of australia’s doing alright in that aspect 😉
She looks like Miss Piggy. Who in the world would pork her?
wow..
Baby socks are a great travel project, quick and tiny and such cute results. Thanks for the chance to win this book.
she is not bad she jst had sme bad luck evry negative person needs to shut the hell up take a look at urselves saying leah needs to be takin away wat is wrong w u guys only white trash idiots think tht way…i think amber is jst a normal young woman nobodys perfect……btw leah is the most adorable little girl on the show….shes always clean ndressed