Public Discourses About Teenage Pregnancy: Disruption, Restoration, and Ideology

Abstract

Two recent incidents in the United States generated a wealth of public discourses about a particular reproductive health issue: adolescent childbearing. As the media, political pundits, and private citizens pondered the meaning of these events, they expressed viewpoints, explanations, and possible solutions in mass-mediated outlets. We examined the discourses communicated in such outlets to understand how public discussion of teenage pregnancy reveals ideological assumptions about reproductive health, ideal family forms, and the expected life course.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Jennifer J. Bute (PhD, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign) is an assistant professor in Communication Studies at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis. Laura D. Russell (PhD, Ohio University) is an assistant professor in Communication at Denison University. A previous version of this article was presented at the annual meeting of the Central States Communication Association in April 2010. The authors thank Laura Ellingson and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on this article.