A mom on TikTok is going viral for the way she responded to finding out her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant. Nicole Hennessy, a mom and photographer from Rockville, Maryland, posts stories about her day-to-day life and her family on the social media platform. Recently, she uploaded a video reenactment of the day she found a piece of a pregnancy test wrapper her teen dropped on the bathroom floor, and her reaction to the pregnancy news has sparked an important conversation on social media.
In her TikTok video, Hennessy offers viewers a play-by-play of her thoughts and emotions as she acts out the process of finding the pregnancy test wrapper and talking to her teen. First, she asked her daughter if the test was hers. The teen said yes, but swore it had been negative and her mom had nothing to worry about. Hennessy’s mom intuition told her not to let the subject go.
Watch Nicole’s video:
Hennessy says she bought another pregnancy test and asked her daughter to take it after school. The new test came back positive. Rather than spinning off into a rage or forcing her daughter to handle the pregnancy a certain way, Hennessy chose to educate her teen about the options available to her: keeping the baby, having an abortion or putting the baby up for adoption. Hennessy’s daughter chose to keep the baby, and her mom’s loving and supportive approach to the situation has sparked a huge reaction from her followers.
“What an amazing and supportive mom,” one person writes in the comments on TikTok. “It’s better to understand options than to judge them and tell them abstinence is the only option.”
Others are sharing their own teen pregnancy stories and what a difference it makes to have help from their parents. “When my mom found out, she told me, ‘You have options if you are not ready. You don’t have to do this. It is your life. Nobody else’s.’ Forever thankful,” one person writes.
Of course, not everyone is a fan of Hennessy’s approach. Some wonder if Hennessy is exploiting her teen daughter’s story for attention. Others have a problem with her offering abortion as a possible option and are accusing her of bad parenting. “This is why you don’t let your kids do whatever they want,” one person writes.
In follow-ups to her original post, Hennessy explains that she got her daughter’s approval before posting her video. She also responds to anti-abortion critics and those accusing her of being a bad mom. “My job as a mother is to educate her and help her be the best person she wants to be, not who I want her to be,” Hennessy says. “…We talked about abortion, we talked about adoption, we talked about keeping the baby and what all three of those options would look like for her. Then she got to make an educated decision based on facts. That’s what makes her an independent person and a strong person, and I hope you raise your children the same way.”
Watch her follow-up video:
Teen pregnancy rates declined 7% from 2016 to 2017, according to the most recently available data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC cites increases in the number of teens using birth control or practicing abstinence as possible reasons for the decline, but they also note the U.S. still has higher teen pregnancy rates than many other industrialized nations. Over 194,000 babies were born to teenage parents in 2017. The parents of those babies all need support, medical care and education about the options available to them.
Hennessy wants others to know that despite her admirable response to her daughter’s pregnancy, the situation wasn’t easy for either of them. In a final post, the mom shares that she relied on her best friends and her own mom for support. She also accompanied Angelina to abortion clinics two separate times, and the teen changed her mind over and over again before ultimately deciding to keep and raise the baby.
Through it all, Hennessy helped her daughter work through her emotions and supported her choices. “Now we work together to prepare for her life as a mom,” Hennessy writes. Hopefully her honesty, compassion and love will set a positive example for other parents and teens who find themselves in a similar situation.
