Viewers Guide to MTV’s Abortion Special: Send young women your love, but give Dr. Drew the side-eye


As Entertainment Weekly reported last week, MTV will air No Easy Decision, a one-time special about teens who have had abortions, tonight at 11:30pm EST, an unfortunate ratings graveyard timeslot. (Exhale, a support organization for women who have had abortions, has organized an excellent companion campaign, “16 & Loved,” where you can send your love and support to the brave young women profiled in the special, and through which young women can support one another. More on that below. Also at the bottom of this post: a viewers guide to help you watch the MTV special with a critical eye.)

Billed as a follow-up to the Viacom channel’s popular 16 & Pregnant and Teen Mom, the special will allow three young women who have had abortions discuss the reasons why they chose to end their pregnancies, and share their feelings about the experience. This is a long-overdue and needed addition to the reality TV discussion about teen pregnancies, nearly a third of which end in abortion — a fact that has been 100% absent on MTV until now.


New York City, NY – 10/22/10


Spark Summit: workshop
When
Friday20101012
13:30 - All Ages
Where
68th St. & Lexington Ave
New York City, NY
Other Info
Join Jennifer L. Pozner (Reality Bites Back; Women In Media & News), Andrea Quijada (Media Literacy Project), and Jamia Wilson (Women's Media Center) for an interactive media literacy discussion at the SPARK! Summit on the sexualization of girls in the media. Our session will look critically at how women and girls are represented in the media, and cover how representation is directly correlated with who the decision makers are. We’ll explore what you can do to change the conversation with media literacy, advocacy and action! For more information, see: http://www.sparksummit.com/