The legal prohibition on abortion

The legal prohibition on abortion is a practical and moral boundary in Maribeth Robertson’s pregnancy, narrowing the choices available to a sixteen-year-old who fears her family’s response and cannot see how she could raise a child. The novel makes that boundary consequential through the advice she receives, her refusal of Paul Browne’s proposal, and the adoption decision she eventually makes. Yet the prohibition does not determine that decision by itself: Maribeth continues to assess what she can provide, what she wants, and what she believes would give the baby a better future.

The Doctor’s Advice and the Available Choices

When Maribeth asks her doctor about ending the pregnancy, he tells her that abortion is costly, dangerous, and illegal, and says he does not want her to raise the subject again. He presents childbirth followed by adoption as the simplest option for someone her age. He also advises her to go to the Sisters of Charity when the pregnancy becomes visible and remain there until the baby is born, estimating that this might not happen until July or August. The pregnancy is due in December.

The recommendation comes with an instruction to tell her parents, but Maribeth is already afraid that she cannot return to them until the pregnancy and adoption are over. The doctor promises not to tell them before she does. His advice therefore marks both the legal limit and the social arrangement that surrounds it: continue the pregnancy, leave home when it shows, and plan to relinquish the child. The option is described as straightforward, but Maribeth suspects that giving a baby away will be more complicated than the doctor makes it sound.

Paul’s Proposal and Maribeth’s Refusal

Paul later asks whether Maribeth wants to end the pregnancy. He offers to ask around about an abortion and says he might find money, while acknowledging that it would be expensive. Maribeth refuses. The doctor’s warning has closed off that avenue for her, and she is also uncomfortable with the possibility that ending the pregnancy might amount to taking a life. Her refusal is thus not simply a response to the law: it reflects the advice she has received and her own uncertainty about the act.

When Paul asks whether she will keep the baby, Maribeth says she plans to give it up for adoption. She explains that she could stay with the nuns and that the baby would be placed with adoptive parents. Paul turns away from the prospect and is distressed by the situation, but he does not take on responsibility for it. The scene establishes the gap between his suggestion and Maribeth’s decision: he raises abortion as a way out, while she holds to adoption as the course she can accept.

Adoption, Consent, and the Meaning of Care

Maribeth’s reasons for adoption become more fully articulated when she confides in Tommy Whittaker. She says her parents will not help her, she cannot earn enough to support a baby, and she does not want to become a parent now. She worries that she can barely manage her own life and would not be able to give a child what it needs. Tommy finds the idea of relinquishment hard to accept and would rather marry her and keep the baby, but Liz cautions him to listen to Maribeth and not push her into marriage or parenthood. Her wishes and capacity, rather than his impulse to rescue her, have to guide the decision.

Maribeth tells Liz that she will not marry Tommy simply to avoid giving up the baby. They are both too young, she says, and she believes she is not ready to be a mother. She wants the child to have parents who can love and care for it without being frightened by the responsibility. As the pregnancy advances, that reasoning does not spare her grief; it makes the choice more difficult because the baby is increasingly real to her.

A small collection of baby gifts at a farewell gathering at Jimmy D's changes the decision from an abstraction into an imminent loss. Booties, knitted clothes, a blanket, toys, diapers, a teddy bear, and a high chair make the life Maribeth will not share with the child suddenly concrete. She calls her doctor afterward to ask about prospective adoptive parents. When the available possibilities remain uncertain, she insists that there are only two weeks left and says she does not want to take the baby home and then give it away. The prohibition remains part of the circumstances, but the novel also foregrounds economic insecurity, the absence of family support, and the difficult emotional work of relinquishment.

A Private Adoption and Its Aftermath

Maribeth eventually asks Liz and John to adopt the baby. Liz does not treat the offer as an uncomplicated gift: she tells Maribeth that she can stay with the Whittakers and raise the child with their help, without surrendering it because of poverty. Maribeth repeats that she wants them to adopt the baby, explaining that she does not feel strong enough to care for it and wants it to have a secure future. Her decision is presented as an expressed choice, even as the circumstances that shape it are sharply constrained.

Three days after Kate’s birth, Maribeth signs the adoption papers with a shaking hand and waives the waiting period. She asks that the nurse not bring the baby to her that day because she needs time to mourn. When she later leaves the hospital with the baby, she tries not to respond when Kate cries, forcing herself to maintain the distance required by the adoption. Liz is already taking the place of mother in the daily acts of care, while Maribeth recognizes that she will not be the person who comforts Kate at night or cares for her when she is ill.

The arrangement also includes a boundary around Kate’s origins: the Whittakers and Maribeth agree that, for the time being, Kate will know Maribeth as their friend rather than as her birth mother. The narrative does not present this secrecy as a resolution of the loss; it sits alongside Maribeth’s grief and the family’s hope of keeping her connected to them. Liz and John also support Maribeth’s education, offering her the funds they had set aside for Annie and a place to return to after she finishes school. The ending therefore places the legal prohibition within a wider story of constrained choices, personal consent, adoption, and the material support that can make a future beyond adolescent parenthood imaginable.