By: Tyler Gieseke
University of Minnesota students will get a taste of reality Wednesday — reality TV stars, that is.
"Teen Mom" and "16 and Pregnant" stars Catelynn Lowell and Tyler Baltierra will visit campus to discuss unplanned pregnancy and adoption.
Students for Human Life, a group on campus committed to promoting “the dignity of each human being, from conception until natural death,” invited the stars to present.
Unplanned pregnancy and adoption aren’t common among Minnesota college students, according to Boynton Health Service’s 2012 College Student Health Survey Report — only about 2.3 percent of surveyed students from 10 Minnesota higher education institutions experienced unplanned pregnancies in the year before the survey. Of the unplanned pregnancies, less than 1 percent resulted in adoption.
“I wish that number was a lot higher,” said Nathan Hastings, a member of Students for Human Life. He said he hoped “people will learn more about adoption and feel more comfortable pursuing it” through the event.
While 40 percent of the unplanned pregnancies resulted in birth and parenting, 17 percent resulted in abortion. A quarter of respondents were still pregnant at the time of the survey.
Promoting open adoption
After 16-year-old Lowell became pregnant, she and Baltierra decided to put their daughter up for open adoption through Bethany Christian Services, said Claudia Fletcher, executive director of Bethany Christian Services Minnesota.
Open adoption, which Fletcher said Bethany promotes, means birth parents are able to stay in contact with adopted children and be involved in their lives, removing some of the secrecy that has traditionally surrounded adoption.
Bethany, the largest adoption agency in the nation, is sponsoring Baltierra and Lowell’s April tour. Besides the University, the couple will visit St. Cloud State University, Fletcher said.
“Because of their popularity,” she said, “they can get the message out that we’ve been trying to put out for a long time.”
Fletcher — who has adopted 12 children with her husband — said adoption today is different than in the past.
“Adoptive families really are prepared to have a strong relationship with the birth parents of their children,” she said. “The kids grow up just really not knowing that there’s anything that different.”
Other campus visits
In the past year, Lowell and Baltierra have been involved in events on several other college campuses, including Penn State, the University of Michigan and Michigan State University, Bethany spokeswoman Abby Brant said in an email.
Hastings said he heard Baltierra and Lowell had visited other schools when he attended a Students for Life conference in January, which inspired him to see if they could come to the University.
Student groups at the tour’s campuses are responsible for publicity and securing a venue for Lowell and Baltierra’s visit, Fletcher said.
The event will be held in the Bell Museum of Natural History’s auditorium at 7 p.m.