Alva Review-Courier -

Fifty percent of girls who become pregnant do not complete their educations; becoming such a statistic at the age of 17, when pursuing a PhD had been a prominent goal, was not an option. Accidents happen.

Until I was 12, the daily lesson from my maternal grandmother was “accidents happen” – a lesson that was not supposed to account for a torn condom and possible pregnancy. Expect the unexpected, right?

Unfortunately, the teenagers who consistently do so come in limited numbers. Like numerous other adolescents in the United States, I was tossed into a vulnerable situation, unwilling (and partia...