When a 16-year-old friend called to tell me she was pregnant, I locked myself in a room and let her voice innumerable concerns.

She wanted the baby. Stubborn as ever, she wouldn't hear of postponing the picture-perfect life she wanted with the child's father by considering adoption or abortion.

Eventually, and dare I say, thankfully, her baby's health forced doctors to perform a medical abortion. She later admitted that, in many ways, she knew her life would offer more opportunities since she was childless.

Unfortunately, often due to fear or lack of money, neither voluntary nor required abortions are available to all young girls. In middle school, I learned of peers who had forced miscarriages. One, only 13 years old, asked her boyfriend to push her down the stairs. Another was willingly attacked by a group of young men who beat her stomach. These methods mirror the crudest of early abortions, when angel-makers — the abortion facilitators — would jump off chairs or poke around with a quill to kill the fetus. By shunning legal abortions today, we indirectly encourage confused teens to subject themselves to practices that should have stopped centuries ago. I can't imagine that this illustrates the Catholic way.

The Church believes pregnant teens should either raise their own children or bring life to another family through adoption. Unfortunately, not every unwanted pregnancy can be resolved through one of these means. Who considers the high school student who drops out of school due to a difficult nine months, preventing a timely graduation or threatening the chance of any further education? Who thinks of the co-ed who must leave her part-time job (a means of paying for college) because of her pregnancy? As disheartening as it seems, the answer is not always the Catholic Church.

Some have credited my pro-choice stance to my public schooling. I wasn't brought up with strong Catholic values, they tell me. I don't value the meaning of life, the future of a fetus, blah, blah, blah. I do believe that the rights of an unborn child should be protected, but more so, I insist the future of an insecure young girl must first be ensured.

Some teenage mothers marry a suitable father, find prosperous jobs, arrange for adequate daycare and live happily ever after. The majority don't.

This dominant group knows they can't raise a baby, can't keep a job and don't have a father for their child. I know girls like this on a variety of levels, and I see their hidden regret and impending failures: to raise a child and continue their own much needed growth.

If a teenager can admit her mistake and understand her inability to care for a child at the time, she should be allowed the right to an abortion without being chastised by society.

I don't expect every pregnant teenager to run to their nearest abortion clinic. Some feel that keeping her child is the only way to take responsibility for their actions. Some think offering a baby up for adoption lessens her own burden while benefiting another family.

Teenage mothers should be supported for any selection, be it parenthood, adoption or abortion. All three take careful consideration and require many sacrifices.

It's a tough choice and by criticizing abortion, we only make it tougher.

• Assess abortion cases separately