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