Planned Parenthood and members of the cast of MTV’s show “No Easy Decision” hosted a screening in the Union Ballroom last Wednesday night to talk about abortion.

The show is a follow up to “16 and Pregnant” but instead of following teens throughout their pregnancy; “No Easy Decision” is about those who decided to have an abortion. Natalia and Katie, the girls on the show, came to talk about the decisions they went through and how their lives were affected afterwards.

According to Planned Parenthood, one in three women will have an abortion in the U.S. by the time they are 45 years old. The show and screening event were created so that people who have been through this can start talking about it more openly, and pregnant teens can have a better understanding of what their options are.

“Sometimes it’s the responsible choice and I think sometimes people look at it as though you’re shirking your responsibility and girls need to know that they’re not alone and it’s okay to talk about it,” Natalia said about her decision to have an abortion when she was 17, and to talk about it publicly on MTV.

There has been some criticism that the show takes advantage of young girls and exploits them for viewers. “I am not a victim of some industry,” said Natalia; “I want to continue doing advocacy in any way I can.” In the show the girls talk about their experience having an abortion and how they believe it was the right decision for them.

Natalia got involved with the MTV program because she was active in the reproductive rights community. Katie worked for Barack Obama’s campaign and got in touch with some people through her work with the National Abortion Right Action League.

“I found out about the show on Thursday and flew to New York that Saturday morning at 6 a.m. to film,” said Katie, pointing out that the show was not very organized and had some weird editing. But Natalia added, “I think the show was received pretty well.”

Katie Jesse, a former UW – Milwaukee student and Planned Parenthood supporter said, “It was choppy; they brush the surface on like 10 different things, but it’s hard to criticize because they are the only one to have this discussion,” about MTV’s decision to make a show about abortion.

After the screening, there was a discussion panel that took questions from the audience and information was given about the statistics of abortion in Wisconsin. There were also sex educators on-site to help with any personal questions from audience members.

Katie said she doesn’t understand why some people feel pregnancy is a just punishment for having sex out of marriage.

When pressed about their parents’ involvement, Natalia said her mom read her diary to find out about her abortion.
There will be similar events later this month in Madison and Green Bay. The show “No Easy Decision” first aired late last year but the full episode can be found on MTV’s website.

Jon Gorski contributed to this article.