washington post

Two years ago, an abortion ban made them teen parents

Today on “Post Reports,” we follow up with Brooke and Billy High, two teenagers compelled into parenthood by the Texas abortion ban. Now, they’re caring for their twin daughters in a new city and trying their best to hold it all together.

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Last summer, The Post’s abortion reporter Caroline Kitchener told the story of a teenager who wanted an abortion and ended up having twins because of the Texas abortion ban. The story which “Post Reports” also covered went viral. 

“The fascinating thing about that story for me was that people read it in two completely different ways,” Caroline Kitchener tells guest host Will Oremus. “You had antiabortion people saying, ‘This is wonderful. There are two babies in the world. Their parents love them. They got married. He’s joining the military,’ … kind of holding them up as poster children for what an abortion ban can do. But on the other side, you had abortion rights advocates saying, ‘This is a tragedy. She dropped out of school, this ambitious young woman; her life in so many ways is just so much more difficult.’”

In today’s episode of “Post Reports,” Caroline catches up with Brooke and her now-husband Billy as the two 19 year-olds try to make marriage and parenthood work.