In the furore over 13 year old Alfie Patten fathering a daughter with 15 year old Chantelle Steadman, Tony Kerridge, a spokesman for Marie Stopes International, is quoted in the Guardian today as saying:
"We have got the social aspect of young girls in the UK seeing having a baby as a route to getting their own place. These sorts of lifestyle choices can be dealt with on an educational level if teenage girls realise what they are contemplating is a route into social deprivation and being in the benefits culture for the rest of their lives."
Well done Tony. You just go ahead and fuel the completely misguided stereotype of single mothers and council housing, that the housing shortage is due to our fecklessness. Sure, I kept my baby so I could get a council flat on some squalid, stinking estate. Of course I did. It had nothing to do with my personal or religious beliefs did it? Nothing to do with thinking I would regret an abortion? Oh no, not at all.
Conception, and the decision that comes with it, is not always so black and white and not always about council flats, as Tony infers. I have met a woman who got pregnant to get a flat, so I'm not saying it doesn't happen. She was working as a dentist's receptionist. Working. Not on benefits. Hear that Tony? Dot said to Ronnie in Eastenders recently that beneath the skin of many a woman, lies a baby story. What is my story if not a baby story?
However I must thank Michael Gove. In an article for The Times on May 31st 2005, headlined "Pregnancy is a Male Problem" he said:
"It may be cause for concern that we live in a country where girls are giving birth to children at an ever younger age, but we should not forget where the deeper problem lies - with all those men who want to behave like children all their adult lives. " (How many children does Alfie's dad have? Nine the Guardian says, Gove's point exactly....)
Alfie and Chantelle had an accident. Miraculous accidents happen. They had a choice. They chose. What their story doesn't need is thinkers like you Mr Kerridge, who ensure stigmums remain judged and villified by broader society.
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