A 16 or 17 year old certainly has the mental capacity to know whether or not they want a child or to go through 9 months of pregnancy. Teenagers aren't idiots, they have brains that are capable of dealing with complicated decisions like this. They certainly dealt with pregnancy much earlier in the past, and teenagers have gotten smarter since then. Also I would talk about how these teens may be in a situation where they might have parents who aren't understanding of mistakes they may have made. A parent doesn't own a teen like property, like the counterpointers seem to imply. They have lots of rights and responsibilities in our society. They can go to prison, they can drive, they can have abortions.
![[Image: dcep7c.jpg]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=i46.tinypic.com%2Fdcep7c.jpg)