"I'm not ready for a baby. If I could go back, I would," said 14-year-old Amber Loy, whose baby is due in July.

"I'm still a child."

Amber's dream is to be a psychologist. Now that she is pregnant, it will be more difficult to fulfill. But she's continuing her education at Indianapolis Public Schools' Learning Center and living with her grandparents.

Semonia, 17, and Kha'jaa, 16, also planned for a different future -- one filled with friends and college. Now, they're living at St. Elizabeth's Home, awaiting the births of their children.

These teens, whose names were changed to protect their identities, recently shared their stories.

Consequences

KHA'JAA: My mom talked to me about (sex) when I was little, and I was doing what she told me to do. Then as I got older, I changed. My hormones kicked in.

I didn't think it was ever gonna happen.

SEMONIA: My mom, she really don't say nothing (about sex), it's just implied. You knew better than to do what you're doing, and if you're doing it, you have to pay the consequences. I knew what could happen when I was doing it.

I wasn't thinking I would get pregnant, because I'd had a bunch of surgeries and stuff, and a bunch of doctors (told) me I would never get pregnant. But I sure am.

AMBER: I was on the Pill when I got pregnant. If I had known that I was gonna get pregnant, then I wouldn't have had sex.

Baby's father

SEMONIA: My baby's daddy does not want nothing to do with it.

KHA'JAA: I ain't gonna let my baby's daddy run out on me -- "You're 21 years old -- you can get locked up, baby." He's regretting the sex thing.

AMBER: (My boyfriend) lives with me now and he gets on my nerves. He had to quit school for the rest of this year, so he is gonna go to night school next year and graduate so he can work. (Now), he works for my grandpa. He is 16.

Family reaction

SEMONIA: My whole family is actually 100 percent supportive of me. I've already got everything I need and more for when the baby's here.

My mom would not let me give (the baby) up for nothing. If I wanted to give it up for adoption, it was going to her. If I wanted to get an abortion, it was not going to happen.

I had to become a parent.

AMBER: (My boyfriend's) mom was shocked 'cause his 17-year-old brother's girlfriend just had a baby eight months ago.

My mom cried. My dad didn't say nothing. What can he say? My grandpa cried. My grandma was mad.

KHA'JAA: I got locked up, right, and I took my pregnancy test in there and they told me. I told my grandmother when we was in the courtroom, and she totally went off, cussed (out) the judge and everything.

My daddy be like her daddy -- he flipped out.

Choices

AMBER: I don't want to have an abortion because that's murder. If you're gonna have sex, you gotta deal with it. I'm not gonna give my baby up for adoption, because then I'll grow up knowing that I have a kid and I don't know who it is. (I plan) to keep it and raise it the best I can. When it's about 4 months old, I'm gonna get a job.

KHA'JAA: I don't want no adoption. Once you go through all that pain of labor, you hold your baby, it's gonna be hard to let go and give your baby up.

I don't believe in (abortion).

SEMONIA: I thought about getting an abortion because, well, I'm a cheerleader and I play basketball and all that stuff.

But then again, I also thought about it, and this could be my only chance to have a child. So I'm not giving it up.

Regrets

AMBER: I'm not happy. It's not fun. I thought you got fat and you had the kid, but you got pains and you can't do nothing. I can't do what normal kids do. It's hard to go somewhere; people talk about you being so little and pregnant.

I wouldn't tell nobody to be pregnant. I tell all my friends to use protection.

SEMONIA: Where I come from, it's like not accepted or nothing. But all my friends are OK with it, so I'm not ashamed of it. But then again, I am because you kind of feel embarrassed when you go around other people, like when you're at the mall and everybody's staring at you, you're like "Oops."

School is even worse because people you don't know will look at your stomach, but they won't even have enough nerve to say anything to you.

I wish I would've waited, but you know, things don't work out that way.

KHA'JAA: When I was 12, I was like, "I can't wait till I have me a baby." And then I changed my mind because I have 10 brothers and two sisters, and it's like a houseful always. . . . But now I'm stuck with one.

There is no safe way to have sex, period. If I could change it, I would. I'd be a virgin till I get married.

ASSISTANT EDITORS: Emily Jacobi, 17, and Eric Shaffstall, 15.

REPORTERS: Peter Cowden, 11; Stuart McWhirter, 12; Clara Mitchell, 11; and Courtney Sampson, 12.