MTV “16 & Pregnant” couple stands for life at youth pro-life conference
I was fortunate enough to be in the second row, center stage, when this great young couple (from 16 and Pregnant) spoke at the Students for Life of America conference on January 26.
Catelynn Lowell and Tyler Baltierra were made famous on MTV’s “16 and Pregnant” in 2009 when they decided to place their daughter Carly for adoption. MTV continued to track the couple in its “Teen Mom” series through 2012.
Since then the two have become strong advocates for adoption, speaking around the country at high school and college campuses.
And lately, Catelynn and Tyler have become more outspoken advocates for the sanctity of preborn human life as well, much to the chagrin of abortion pushers.
I don’t think video is available yet of their speech at SFLA’s conference, but I tweeted a couple of their statements during their speech…
"I am completely pro-life. Let's save those babies!" Tyler of @MTV's "16 & Pregnant" @ @Students4LifeHQ #SFLA2013.
— Jill Stanek (@JillStanek) January 27, 2013
"We are the generation that will abolish abortion, right?! Let's put an end to abortion!" Catelynn of @MTV's "16 & Pregnant" #SFLA2013.
— Jill Stanek (@JillStanek) January 27, 2013
Teen Mom’s OG adoption pioneers, Catelynn Lowell and Tyler Baltierra, hit up the 2013 Students For Life National Conference in Washington D.C. on January 26, and they’re more steadfast in their pro-life stance than ever!
The conference covered topics like Planned Parenthood, Roe v. Wade, birth control, and abortion, so as you might expect Cate and Ty had a lot to say. These two have been longtime advocates of adoption, and their emotional story about placing Baby Carly with a new family is definitely inspirational for teens dealing with unplanned pregnancy.
Catelynn and Tyler seem more hard-lined than ever in their pro-life stance, and they’re now pioneers for the “pro-life generation.” Whether or not you agree with this hot couple’s controversial opinion, there’s no denying that their anti-abortion work has brought them closer together.
“You are the most amazing MAN a woman could ask for!” Cate posted on Instagram along with pictures of herself and her man campaigning against abortion [photo below]. “So excited to have you as my husband!”
Catelynn later proudly tweeted several pro-life proclamations as well as this photo…
Catelynn and Tyler are remarkable spokespersons for adoption and life, swimming upstream against the very MTV culture that gave them rise. Find info here about having them come to your campus. And remember to pray for these two.
[Top photo via Daena Moore]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
And a DeniseNoe repetitive anti-adoption argument complete with anecdote in 3…2…1…
;-)
Would adoption be more popular if it could be performed pre-natally?
That is, if it were possible to transplant from one womb to another.
So sad it is only those old white men that are against abortion. ; )
Catelynn and Tyler are strong supporters of Decisions, Choice and Options http://www.decisionschoicesandoptions.org. They have come to TN several times for our fund raisers and are contributors and to do presentations. They are priceless. They truly have helped promote adoption over abortion.
The next generation of pro-lifers makes me so proud!! At the Walk, I was amazed at how the young people spoke and what they felt. They really understand that their friends and classmates are MISSING. They really understand that abortion is not only murder but that it robs them of the people in their lives. It robs them of friends, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, and uncles. They don’t buy this “they aren’t people yet” business that the pro-aborts are trying to market. And gosh, they are just so CHEERFUL compared to the angry pro-aborts shouting from the sidewalk. They have seen the ultrasound images of their own pre-infancy, those of their siblings, and friends. They will NEVER be fooled by “it’s a clump of cells.” That malarky only worked on the previous generation because we simply didn’t know the facts about embryos and fetal development.
I love Catelynn and Tyler! So mature for their age. I can’t imagine how hard it is to place your baby for adoption but they knew it was best for their daughter. THAT is parenthood right there…doing what is best for your child and not thinking of your own needs/wants. So happy to hear they are pro-life! I don’t see how anyone in this day and age could NOT be pro-life! The technology we have now is so amazing to see the baby in the womb and see that child’s humanity. Still, it isn’t to speak out and say “Abortion is wrong!” Glad Catelynn and Tyler are so brave. And congrats to them to as they prepare to marry!
In Catelynn and Tyler’s original 16&Pregnant episode one of their friends asked them what they felt when they found out they were pregnant. She said she would abort if she ever found herself in a similar situation. Hopefully she will reconsider as she watches Catelynn and Tyler go on with their lives without the guilt of a dead daughter on their minds.
Something good, finally, has come out of that stupid show. Proud of them.
It is one thing to be pro-life but it is another to be pro-child. These two have an “open” adoption. Open adoption is glorified foster care and is not what is best for the child. To have to grow up always looking back puts pressure on a child and does not allow the Lord to fully redeem the situation. There’s a selfishness involved in open adoption. I believe that pro-lifers have compromised with all of these open adoptions because we are so scared that women are going to abort their babies. It’s sad that the church follows the trends of the world instead of the other way around. Since the rise of feminism, open adoption has become common and considered what is best by most social workers. Our bodies are a dwelling place for our souls. As Christians, we should have an eternal perspective. This life is so short. If we are constantly pointing our adopted children back to their physical roots that God wants to redeem them from, would He be pleased? Adopted children have history prior to birth or even conception-when they were inside God’s imagination and then His hands as He decided to fearfully & wonderfully knit them together. This is the heritage we should be teaching our children. So when I see the pro-life community continue to praise two teenagers who are pro-life but have these open adoptions, I’m not sure what to think. Yes it’s great that they are pro-life but it is not so great that the pro-life community has jumped on the open adoption bandwagon because of fear. If a couple or a woman wants to still be involved in their/her child’s life, then they should keep their baby. And the church should rally around them and support them by helping them do so.
“Open adoption is … not what is best for the child.”
Do you have any sources that support your opinion?
I see nothing about open adoptions that is contrary to the Christian faith.
Open adoption allows birth parents some extra moral support (and often financial support) in a culture that pressures them to abort and “get on with your life.” When young people see that adoption has occured in someone else’s life, it helps them PICTURE in their mind another alternative. Many young people in crisis pregnancies can’t IMAGINE how they are going to cope. Catelynn and Tyler may not be an ideal set of role models in a perfect world, but I can tell you that it’s better for a pregnant teen to be influenced by them, and say to herself, “OK, it’s going to be hard, but I can do this.” And having the adoptive family there for emotional support BEFORE the birth can be very beneficial. You think young people don’t hear all kinds of pressure to abort? They do! A closed adoption means to a young mother that she’ll never know where her child is, if he’s safe, if he’s loved. For some young mothers, that’s too difficult to contemplate.
We can’t wait until the world is perfect to start saving lives. I think open adoptions are far better than hauling away a child’s body in a Stericycle truck.
My friend who is a devout Roman Catholic and a President of a Crisis Pregnancy Center is also an adoption attorney — and a strong proponent of open adoptions. Like many people, he believes in taking adoption out of the adoption and secrecy and bringing it into the light.
Open adoptions are not just better than abortions. Open adoptions are better than closed adoptions. Light is better than darkness.
Open adoption should be legally enforceable. In many cases, an adoptive family can “close” without a valid reason and the birthmother has no recourse. Making open adoption legally enforceable is a good goal.
“Yes it’s great that they are pro-life but it is not so great that the pro-life community has jumped on the open adoption bandwagon because of fear. If a couple or a woman wants to still be involved in their/her child’s life, then they should keep their baby”
I think the church and most thinking people “jumped on the open adoption bandwagon” because of the proven detrimental effects of closed adoptions in a ton of cases. I actually don’t like adoption much at all, but if it has to happen for whatever reason, open adoption is associated with less trauma to both the natural mother and the child. I personally think closed adoption should be reserved for cases of abuse, possibly addiction, and other issues that safety might require the natural parents to not be involved, but most some form of open adoption is better (even if it’s as little as the adoptive family keeping the natural mother updated with their address, so she can have peace of mind knowing where her kid is).
It’s not about secrecy. It’s about allowing the child to have the freedom to grow up in a home with one mom & one dad….the way God created a family to be. Open adoption is like growing up in a broken home. Contrary to popular belief, not all adopted children want to meet their birth parents. We should be teaching our adopted children that God created them and planned them from before the foundations of the world and in His sovereignty He allowed them to grow in their birth mother’s womb but was created for the family that God put them in.
I believe with all my heart that there are far too many adoptions to begin with. Instead of promoting adoption, the church should be teaching and helping families to stay together. Christian adoption agencies should not be using manipulation and fear with birth parents and/or with adoptive parents. Adoption should be the very last resort. And the most loving thing a birth parent can do, if they decide to give their baby up for adoption, is to let them go. There needs to be some trust in God to take care of things both in the pro-life movement and in adoption circles. Birth mom needs to have the freedom to move on as well and to have to rely on Jesus to comfort her and supply her needs.
It’s not about waiting until everything is perfect, it’s about loving wisely. I know that my views are not popular but usually God’s ways are not popular.
“Open adoption is like growing up in a broken home.”
I doubt anyone has ever been hurt because they had too many parents who cared about them and love them, and want them to be taken care of. You think kids will be like “oh wow, I had way too many adults who wanted to see me happy and well as a child”. As long as the adoptive couple are the people with legal custody, I haven’t seen a single rational reason for opposing open adoption.
“Contrary to popular belief, not all adopted children want to meet their birth parents”
And not all natural mothers and fathers want to see their babies when they get older. The majority do, however, want to know their children are safe and well and want to see that they grew up okay. And they should have the opportunity to do so.
“Instead of promoting adoption, the church should be teaching and helping families to stay together. Christian adoption agencies should not be using manipulation and fear with birth parents and/or with adoptive parents. Adoption should be the very last resort.”
I agree with this 6000%. I honestly find it sick how people push adoption on young people.
“And the most loving thing a birth parent can do, if they decide to give their baby up for adoption, is to let them go. There needs to be some trust in God to take care of things both in the pro-life movement and in adoption circles. Birth mom needs to have the freedom to move on as well and to have to rely on Jesus to comfort her and supply her needs.”
I’m sorry but this type of thinking led to the Baby Scoop Era and a lot of trauma, pain, and heartache that damaged thousands of people, natural mothers and children alike. Society decided that a baby wouldn’t adjust if they weren’t kept from ever meeting the natural mother, and people also assumed that the mother would move on and be fine without her child. Seriously, read some stories about what all those closed adoptions, some forced and coerced, did to the women and children (and some men) involved. There was no “loving wisely” involved. Some turned out okay. A lot of them? Not so much.
I think anyone who is a parent who thinks closed adoption would be just fine should look at your kids and imagine them being raised by someone else, never getting to see them again or know if they were being treated well, or if they were being abused or harmed. It’s ridiculous to think that never causes damage. And on the kids side, some adoptees do fine, some are damaged from closed adoptions. That’s not “loving wisely”.
“It’s not about waiting until everything is perfect, it’s about loving wisely. I know that my views are not popular but usually God’s ways are not popular.”
You do know that in biblical times, depending on the location, they didn’t have our nuclear family concept, right? It was usually a large family with many related adults helping care for the children, usually with a patriarch in charge of it all. Many people helped raise the kids.
God’s perfect design for the family was one man and one woman united in marriage.
God’s perfect design for the family was one man and one woman united in marriage. Having multiple wives and children with maid servants caused all kinds of problems. All one needs to do is read the Bible to see that.
Completely disagree with your statement about having more people to love a child is good for a child. We will have to agree to disagree.
Good night.
“God’s perfect design for the family was one man and one woman united in marriage. Having multiple wives and children with maid servants caused all kinds of problems. All one needs to do is read the Bible to see that.”
Wasn’t talking about polygamy or anything of that nature (nor do I use the Bible as a blueprint for living, but that’s another matter). It’s just factual that the western ideal of nuclear families living alone without extended family is fairly recent, much of human history had extended families heavily involved in helping raise children, more of a “it takes a village” approach. Family clans were common. Do you think having loving and involved grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc, is damaging? I don’t. And I don’t see how having natural parents at least having information on their child, if not helping out, is any more damaging than that.
We can agree to disagree, and I’m sorry I keep harping on this, but I do think this type of thinking is dangerous to the pro-life movement. Some sixteen-year-old who knows that she can’t raise a baby, but also knows that if she chooses adoption she’ll never see that kid again is going to be very vulnerable to abortion. And I personally don’t think that the bond between biological parents and their children (in healthy people, some mentally ill people like my mother apparently never form that bond with me) can be simply broken no matter how much praying they do. I just think… that some people would have given anything to have even one adult around who cared, and some of these adoptive kids have three or four. They’re lucky, blessed kids and I don’t think that them getting that extra love is anything bad.
“Open adoption is like growing up in a broken home.”
One of the most well-adjusted adopted people I’ve ever met was raised in an open adoption with his biological mom. Plus, I’ve known some pretty screwed-up people who come from homes where they had “the freedom to grow up in a home with one mom & one dad….the way God created a family to be.”
A child’s origins should not be shrouded in secrecy. This leaves the impression of something very mysterious — and perhaps shameful. If adoption is necessary, openness should be encouraged.