Preventable tragedy? Oh, absolutely. At several key points:
POINT ONE: SOCIETY
I'll be the first to admit that Texas it perhaps the most backwards state in the union, a fact I learned well growing up as one of very few blacks in a town of around 10,000 people whose largest building was a Baptist church. Society did fail them long before they were even born. So now its up to --
POINT TWO: PARENTS
It is not up to society to raise my daughter: that’s my job. And likewise with the parents of these two teens. One has to wonder what kind of relationship they had with their parents if they were too scared to come to them for help. Typically, however, the fear is often worse than the reality. When the time comes, I know that I will sit down with my child, and have a honest, frank discussion about the facts of life. Though I imagine she'd rather talk about some things with her mother, the end result would be the same: She will be armed with the knowledge to make an informed choice when -- not if -- the opportunity to have sex arises. To include the consequences of doing it or not. Personally I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she'll wind up being gay. Sure would make my life easier. And yes, that was a joke.
POINT THREE: THE ACT OF HAVING SEX
I cannot be the only person on this forum who realizes the only reason we even have the ability to have sex is to produce offspring. Yeah, it feels damn good, and yeah it used for all sorts of viable reasons, but the only reason its there is to continue the species. Did these kids know this going in? Did they take adequate measures to protect themselves? Did they wonder: what will I/she/we do if I/she/we gets knocked up? If you are not mature enough to ask yourself this question -- even if your answer is abortion -- then you are not mature enough to be having sex, whatever your body is telling you.
POINT FOUR: ACCEPTING THE CONSEQUNCES
As I see it. there are 3 things a woman can due with an unwanted pregnancy: abort, carry to term and raise (with the aid of the father), or carry to term and give up for an adoption. What these three things have in common is in each, the mother has accepted the consequences of her actions. Though I may consider an abortion as the single greatest cop-out a human being can commit, that is just my opinion of this viable option. It still an option, and should remain such, right-wing nut jobs be damned.
All three of these options were available to this couple. The fact that she could not abort anonymously is irrelevant. That's just a way to skirt responsibility. In her eyes, she messed up. Well then, fess up. If you're woman enough to have sex, you should be woman enough to own up to your actions. The law may be unfair, but until it is changed, it is the law. If abortion is your choice, then find out what needs to be done to have a medically safe one and then do it. If you don’t want to go though that, refer to point three. That was the time to make that choice.
Yes this was preventable. At no fewer than 4 key points. Texas must take the hit for the first one, but the remaining three are all up to the people in question. When people make bad choices, and then suffer the consequences, I feel no sympathy for them. I've made plenty of mistakes as a teen, some of them follow me to this day. I expect no sympathy. My choice, my consequence, my problem. And that is as it should be.
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