Ads featuring pregnant boys send the message that girls aren’t the only ones who suffer in a teen pregnancy. The alarming ads are popping up across Chicago trains and buses.

 

Chicago Department of Public Health/Chicago Department of Public Health

Ads like these are plastered across Chicago buses and trains.

“Pregnant” boys with bloated bellies and sullen faces are popping up in alarming ads across Chicago buses and trains, part of a city campaign to reduce teenage pregnancy.

The images, with the tagline, “Unexpected? Most teen pregnancies are,” aim to shock, said Brian Richardson, a spokesman for the Chicago Department of Health.

“The point was to get people’s attention and get conversation started about teen pregnancy and teen births, and how they really affect a community,” Richardson told the Daily News.

Ads were concentrated around schools and in areas of Chicago with the highest rates of teen pregnancy.

Chicago Department of Public Health/Chicago Department of Public Health

The ads were concentrated around schools and in parts of Chicago with the highest rates of teenage pregnancy.

The point, Richardson said, is that when a young girl gets pregnant, she’s not the only one who suffers.

“The daughters of teen mothers are more likely to become teen moms themselves,” he said. “And the sons of teen moms are more likely to go to prison. These are challenges that go beyond one girl or one woman.

“The more we can work together to drive down the birth rate, and provide more information to teens, the better off we’ll all be.”

While shocking, the images of the pregnant boys aren’t new. They were first used in Milwaukee in 2009, for a similar campaign with a slightly different tagline: “It shouldn’t be any less disturbing when it’s a girl.”

Chicago Department of Public Health/Chicago Department of Public Health

Chicago health authorities hope the alarming ads spark conversation about teen pregnancy.

That campaign was credited with a subsequent 10% drop in Milwaukee’s teen pregnancy rate, according to the nonprofit ad agency that created the images.

The ads in Chicago, which launched in early May to honor National Teen Pregnancy Month, are only one part of a broader campaign.

 

Read more: DailyNews.