Teenager finding out she's pregnant in 1966

[shanrina]

Setting: Baltimore, Maryland, US, 1966

Comments

[sartorias]

Hoo boy, I was totally there. Twice, both time with family members.

You had to come back to get your results, I think it was two weeks. Any girl who skipped a period usually asked friends, as there was a lot of terror involved. I was nineteen when I helped a fifteen year old family member through it. This was in Southern California, late sixties, and no parental consent was needed--just as well because this kid was terrified her father would kill her. (No hyperbole.) We had to drive a significant distance to the place, but they were very nice to her. I was not in the exam room (in those days, they didn't allow anyone but nurses) so I can't tell you exactly what happened, other than what the kid told me, that it was "horrible". They were kind to her, but the whole cold steel instruments, etc, and super antiseptic room and hospital gown thing was humiliating and terrifying to a fifteen year old.

[shanrina]

That's terrible. I'm so sorry for your relative, and thank you for sharing the experience.

[reapermum]

Pregnancy tests in those days were to inject a toad with a urine sample and wait and see if it laid eggs as a result of the hormones in the urine. So it couldn't be done very early in pregnancy (had to wait until hormone levels would be high enough) and you had to wait for the toad. That's why there were no home tests.

[green_grrl]

An earlier version of the test used rabbits--but the lab would have to autopsy the rabbit to see the size of its ovaries in response to the urine. "The rabbit test" became the popular phrase for a pregnancy test and was still used by the general public in the '60s-'70s even though toads and frogs were used by then in the nonlethal test. Although the rabbit was always killed to do the autopsy, the phrase "the rabbit died" was used by the general public to mean "the pregnancy test was positive," and your characters (girl, boyfriend, friends--not the clinic staff) would plausibly use it.

[tsubaki_ny]

I grew up hearing that term, but never knew there was a real rabbit involved.

[profbutters]

There was actually a Billy Crystal film called "Rabbit Test."

[jamezilla1]

How find out she was pregnant; well for the straight facts, yes go to PP, but back then your friends would have played a bigger role in tipping you off. People were closer and talked about more stuff

[duckodeath]

1966 is seven years before Roe vs. Wade. Abortion (as such) would be a complete non-starter.

In 1966, contraception in and of itself was still controversial. It had only been the previous year that the Supreme Court affirmed the right of married women to have access to birth control and it wouldn't be until 1972 (the year before Roe vs. Wade) that the same right would be extended to unmarried women.

[jamezilla1]

See there are some misconceptions (conception -- ha!) about the Roe v. Wade debate vs. abortion legality

[chomiji]

Haha ... yes, that's us Marylanders: smutty and permissive!

XD

[lindenfoxcub]

You know the first sign you're pregnant is you stop menstruating, right? Does she need a doctor to tell her she's pregnant?

[ukashi_goshi]

Actually, a little bleeding/spotting is common around implantation and in the first trimester in general, and can be mistaken for a period. Also, there are many reasons a woman might have a missed (or very delayed) period without being pregnant, and menstrual cycles tend to be more irregular during adolescence than in adulthood.

[lolmac]

This. In particular, if the teenager is an athlete, or significantly physically active, she's probably had irregular periods all along.

[tweedisgood]

Tell that to my colleague, ha. Four months of what seemed like her regular periods and then woops! Surprise, 20 weeks pregnant.

[houseboatonstyx]

At least through the early 60s, a girl who had slept with her boyfriend would be counting the days till her next period was due, and getting really scared if it was late. This was common knowledge and gossip among girls with anything like a normal circle of friends, or even reading of magazines like True Confessions.

Of course in fact periods would vary (either way) for other reasons -- but even a few days late and she'd start worrying and looking for confirmation.

[dorsetgirl]

counting the days

Hah, that brings back memories, and I'm talking about the early to mid 1970s.

I don't know if it was the same in the US, but it's worth noting that in this country even in 1974 many teenagers still thought you couldn't get pregnant on your first time (or if you did it standing up). Luckily I knew better, but I was told these things in all seriousness by my boyfriend and by people at my Saturday job. So it's possible she'd be quite confident she couldn't be pregnant.

[dorsetgirl]

I've seen quite modern books that still feel the need to tell teenagers this one isn't true, which suggests it's still hanging around. If I were a cynical person I'd almost think it was down to boys telling girls this on occasions when they suddenly realised they might be allowed, didn't have anything with them, but weren't going to pass up an opportunity.