THE RIGHT CHOICE
Marilyn Vega was 15 when she discovered she was pregnant.

"My mom was a deacon in a Protestant Church," she remembers. "That's a pretty high post. I was really scared of disappointing my mom. She didn't even know I had a boyfriend let alone that I was having sex."

After reading an ad in her high school newspaper for Expectant Mother Care, a crisis pregnancy center on East 23rd St. in New York City, she sought help there. A pregnancy test confirmed her fears.

"It was like a cold bucket of water hit me in the face," she says. "That's when I thought of how much this would hurt my family." Marilyn hid the news from her parents and five siblings for several weeks. During that time she felt alone and frightened, and considered abortion.

"In the weeks before my family found out, I was so scared and I wanted to get rid of it," she recalls. "I didn't want to think it was a baby. I felt so alone and so scared and so angry with myself. I thought of ways to not be pregnant. But the more I thought about it, I knew that somebody was watching me, and that somebody was God. I could fool everyone but I could not fool him."

She believes God intervened to put an end to her fears. "When I was in the middle of deciding, I was lying in bed. I was four weeks pregnant at the time. All of a sudden I noticed a little ball on the side of my stomach and I thought, 'What's this?' I never saw this before. I touched it and it moved to my right side. I touched it again and it flattened out my stomach again. And that's when it hit me that this is a baby."

Marilyn says her experience is rare at four weeks gestation, noting that she has since met only two other girls who had similar experiences. "This was kind of God's confirmation to me that this is actually a baby," she says. Although her mother was shocked and upset when the family doctor broke the news to her several weeks later, ultimately her family proved supportive.

Today Marilyn, 23, has a 7-year-old son, Jeremy. She has graduated from high school and is pursuing a college degree in advertising. She is also employed as a counselor at Pregnancy Resource Center, Inc. on East 38th St. in New York City. She admits being a single mom is not easy, but adds, "The wrong choice was to have pre-marital sex. But it was not a wrong choice to have Jeremy."

Marilyn is grateful to the Expectant Mother Care pregnancy center, her family and her church for helping her through her pregnancy. In addition to the free pregnancy test, the center provided counseling, baby clothes and supplies. Looking back, Marilyn shares hope for others facing a crisis pregnancy. "It's better to talk to someone rather than to take the matter into your own hands or do something on impulse," she says. "Once it's done, it's going to come back to you and you end up suffering even more."

She stresses that help is available to those facing a crisis pregnancy. "Even though it might feel like you are alone, you are not the first person to face a crisis pregnancy," she says. "An unplanned pregnancy doesn't have to be an unwelcome one as well."

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