Degrassi (The Next Generation, and The Next, and the NEXT)

The other day I was watching old episodes of Degrassi (back when Degrassi was awesome) and I ended up seeing the one about Manny thinking she was pregnant and how she got an abortion at the end of the episode. I then remembered that it took quite sometime for this episode to be seen in United States (as the show originates in Canada) because the topic of abortion was highly controversial while Ex-President Bush was in office. I began to wonder why such topics as abortion can be banned from television, but teenage pregnancy is allowed to be depicted as frequently as it is. Tv shows such as The Secret Life of the American Teenager and movies such as Fifteen and Pregnant are all depictions of pregnancy during the teenage years. Sadly, these mediums give an unrealistic example of pregnancy and the consequences of one's actions. Do you really believe that Manny would get an abortion, and no one would ever mention it again and she'd go on living happily ever after? NO. Degrassi should have incorporated Manny's emotions after the abortion into additional episodes, and shown her peers' reaction, because in today's society it is hard to keep something of that nature of secret, and not receive a great deal of negativity from peers. Also the media tends to portray teenage pregnancy in a positive light! The intro to Secret Life is bright, and summery with happy colors, and in the show the girl is still considerably happy even though she just gave birth to a child at her ripe age. If the media continues to label teenage pregnancy as something that's "in" and never shows the negative side, teenagers are going to continue to get pregnant and have unprotected sex because the consequences that they see do not negatively reinforce the notion of safe sex. We all know that the media play a huge role in the life of many individuals, it would only be right to use the media to send a message or a warning. Otherwise we will keep having babies raising babies.