Not My Plan
By William Ramsay
Summary
Mother and daughter argue over whether an abortion is the best answer to
an unplanned pregnancy
Characters
Mum
Jill
Script
Mom: Jill, I’m home! (talking while taking of her coat and pulling
groceries out of a bag.) Oh, it’s 6 o’clock already, the traffic
was terrible and I’ve got to get dinner made so I can get Justin to basketball
practice. I wish he could get a ride from someone tonight, I’m so
tired.
Jill: Mom, I need to talk to you. (rather nervous, upset)
Mom: Well, I need to get dinner started, and it would be nice if you
could help out a little bit and not pile all your stuff from school on
the kitchen table. I suppose you didn’t get around to doing any laundry
again, did you?
Jill: No, I got home a little late from school today.
Mom: You’d better not goofing off at school, the last thing I
need right now is another parent-teacher conference.
Jill: No, I wasn’t at school Mom, I stopped somewhere on the
way home. I have something I have to tell you.
Mom: You’re supposed to come straight home after school,
I can’t be working and worrying about you running all over town when I’m
not home.
Jill: I know Mom, but I had to stop at Cornerstone after school.
Mom: Cornerstone? What’s Cornerstone? (Thinks for
a moment) Wait a minute, I’ve seen that name before, near downtown,
it’s Cornerstone Crisis Pregnancy Center….oh no, don’t tell me,… Jill don’t
tell me.
Jill: Mom, I’m pregnant.
Mom: Oh Jill, I can’t believe it,…. it can’t be true. How
could you do this? How could you do this to me?
Jill: Mom, I...
Mom: You know how hard things have been over the last few years,
I’ve been working night and day just to keep a roof over our heads and
food on the table. Your father is no help at all, he doesn’t even
pay his child support and now this! I can’t believe it, how could
you be so stupid? And after all that talking about trusting you and
giving you more responsibility to make your own choices, now you’re pregnant.
Jill: Mom, I didn’t mean for this to happen.
Mom: No, I’m sure you didn’t, but it did happen, and now we have
to deal with it.
Jill: Mom, it’s not an it, it’s a baby.
Mom: I know it’s a baby, but I don’t have room in my life for
a baby, and neither do you. We’ll have to scrape up the money to
pay for it, that’s all.
Jill: Pay for what?
Mom: For an abortion, that’s what. Surely you’re not thinking
of keeping it.
Jill: Mom, it’s not an it, it’s a baby, and Dave and I have talked
it over, and I want to keep the baby.
Mom: That’s ridiculous! How are you going to take care
of a baby and finish school? And where do you think the money is
going to come from to pay the doctor bills? And then what about all
the things the baby will need when it gets here? Who’s going to pay
for all that? I suppose Dave is going to pitch right in with the
money he makes working at the car wash on the week-ends. And where
are you going to live with a baby? We don’t have enough room here
as it is, how can we add a baby, too? You have really done it this
time, what a mess.
Jill: (Crying) I don’t know Mom, I just know that after
talking to the lady at the center, I can’t have an abortion, I just can’t
kill my baby. Please Mom try to understand.
Mom: Well, You better think about this long and hard, because
this decision will change the rest of your life, and it’s going be a mighty
hard one if you have a baby right now.
Jill: Mom, the lady at Cornerstone asked if we could come in
and talk to her together. She thought it might help us to figure
a few things out.
Mom: I really don’t see what help they can be. They're
not the one’s in this mess, we are.
Jill: The counselor told me that there is help, help for the
doctor bills, help with the things for the baby, even help to finish school.
Mom: Oh Jill, I can’t talk about this anymore right now, I’m
so upset I could just scream. I wanted a better life for you, a better
life than mine, I wanted you get married and have a nice home and family,
not this.
Jill: (crying) I’m sorry Mom.
Mom: Sorry isn’t going to fix this, Jill. I just don’t
see any other way, you’re going to have to have that abortion, that’s all
there is to it. You’re too young to know what you’re doing, and I’m
not going to let you make another mistake. If that counselor at Cornerstone
really wants to help, she can give us the name and address of the nearest
abortion clinic.
Jill: Please Mom, can’t we just go in and talk to her first?
Everything she said today made so much sense. She talked about choosing
the easy solution now and regretting it later. She said that life
was precious in the eyes of God, that we were precious to him.
Mom: Who are these people anyway? Why do they care what we do?
Do they get paid or something?
Jill: No Mom, from what Pam my counselor told me, they do this
because they care. They care enough to want to help me make the right
decision and I think they care about my baby, too. Please Mom, can’t
we just talk to her first?
Mom: I don’t know Jill, I’m too upset right now to want to talk
to anyone. I doubt there’s much this lady could say that would change
my mind. There’s just no way we can take care of a baby right now.
What’s the point of talking about it?
Jill: Pam said that before I make any decisions, I need to get
all the facts. There are choices Mom, besides abortion. She said that I
might consider adoption, she even offered to give me information about
abortion procedures so that I can know all the risks involved.
Mom: Risks? I hadn’t really thought about risks, I’m sure
it’s a safe operation. They have special clinics and everything.
Jill: I don’t know Mom, but she can tell us about that if we
go in.
Mom: All right, you call your counselor and make an appointment.
I’ll listen to what she has to say, but really Jill, the sooner we get
it taken care of , the better.
Jill: Mom, please, it’s not an it, it’s my baby.
Mom: (Softly, sadly) I know Jill, (pause) and it seems like just yesterday
when you were my baby.
(Lights out)
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© William Ramsay, all rights reserved
This play may be performed free of charge, on the condition that copies
are not sold for profit in any medium, nor any
entrance fee charged. In exchange for free performance, the author
would appreciate being notified of when and for what
purpose the play is performed. He may be contacted at: wwramsey1@juno.com