What role might race, class, gender, and other aspects of identity play in this vignette?

Based on what you know from the media or your personal, work, or volunteer experiences, think about the following questions as you read the vignette. When you finish the vignette, answer the questions below.
How does Susie define her family?
If she is pregnant and decides to have the baby, how could this change?
What laws would protect Susie if she decided that she did not want to carry her pregnancy to term?
What rights might Susie and John have as teenage parents, and how might their rights be limited?
If Susie decides to have the baby and give it up for adoption, what support from governmental or private agencies should she expect to receive?
Does it matter where she lives?
What role might race, class, gender, and other aspects of identity play in this vignette?
At 15, Susie and her boyfriend, John, had sex for the first time. She was not sure if she really wanted to have sex but she also did not want to lose him and he had been pressuring her for a while. She had just had her period so she was pretty sure she would not get pregnant. When she did not get her period the following month, she got scared. What should she do? If she told her mother, her mother would be disappointed in her, or worse. Susie’s father did not live with her, and she hardly ever saw him, so she could not imagine seeking his help. She was a good student and did not want to go to the nurse because she did not want to be seen as “one of those girls”the kind who have sex early and are irresponsible enough to get pregnant. After the first time, she kept having sex with John but made sure he wore a condom. She worried again the next month when her period still had not come. Susie was afraid to tell John, but she finally did. First, he did not believe a baby could be his because he had been wearing condoms. When she convinced him that he was the only one she had ever had sex with, he insisted she get an abortion because he was not ready to be a father. He was planning to go to college and so was she. At church, they had taught her that abortion is murder. Susie was not sure she totally agreed but she did not want to be a murderer.

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