Episode 5 of 16 and Pregnant introduced us to 16-year-old Lori Wickelhaus of Fort Thomas, Kentucky. Lori, who attends a Catholic girls’ school, was adopted and has to decide if adoption is an option for her son-to-be.
UPDATE – Video embed no longer working.
Lori has the usual baby daddy drama with ex-boyfriend Cory (a mix between Amber’s Gary from Season One of the show and Seth Rogan) who couldn’t quite make up his mind on anything important – like adoption. The two were together for a year before Lori found out she was pregnant and lasted about four months longer before breaking up, and then eventually sort of getting back together, and then breaking up, and…
Meanwhile, on the home front, Lori’s mom and dad were pushing open adoption really, really hard, which of course seemed to push Lori more and more towards keeping the baby and trying to raise him with Cory, who was still gung-ho about the idea at this point. But, after a visit to Cory’s apartment and a discussion about the feasibility of Lori moving in with him and his female roommate, Cory tells Lori’s dad over the phone that he realizes he and Lori wouldn’t financially be able to raise a child. This blindsides poor Lori, who realizes she will have to give her baby up for adoption without really feeling like it was her choice at all.
SPOILER ALERT
In the end, Lori does give Aidan up for open adoption and sees him rather often. I know there are a lot of folks out there that believe a child should stay with his or her birth mother regardless of the circumstances, but this seemed like one of those instances when adoption was OBVIOUSLY the best choice for everyone involved. As Lori’s dad Curt alluded to in the episode, Lori had issues getting by wee-to-week before she got pregnant and did not seem ready or able to take on the responsibility of raising a child even with the assistance of her parents.
What do you think? Did Lori make the right decision?
Here’s a follow-up interview with Lori and MTV’s SuChin Pak where she talks about her decision, how Aidan is doing and whether or not she and Cory are still together:
UPDATE – Video embed no longer working.
Asa Hawks is a writer and editor for Starcasm. You can contact Asa via Twitter, Facebook, or email at starcasmtips(at)yahoo.com
