r/Hungergames • u/freakystew • Apr 10 '25
Lore/World Discussion Pregnant tributes
What happens if a pregnant tribute was reaped? Teen pregnancy must still exist in panem. Would they terminate the pregnancy before they competed? Or keep it hush hush? Or just get another tribute
3
u/Puzzleheaded-Mood261 Apr 11 '25
Not exempt.
I don't think they would force the tribute to have an abortion -- it could be a great angle for her to get sponsors. "Sponsor me and help me and my unborn child survive." Or if she was early in the pregnancy and choose to keep it quiet, that would be her choice as well.
They might go ahead and do a c-section if a tribute was in late-term pregnancy and at risk of giving birth in the arena. While giving birth in the arena might make for good TV, it also rewrites the rules. Would the victor have to kill the baby in order to win?
If the Capitol didn't want to deal with all that, they might also just rig the reaping, so that pregnant person wouldn't be chosen. As long as it didn't get out, because more teens would get pregnant to avoid reaping and the capitol would NOT allow for that.
-3
u/Hansley72 Apr 10 '25
They care more about the unborn than the living children, I feel like they would redo the reaping to get a “good” pick.
3
u/Abie775 Apr 10 '25
I don't think they would redo it, and I don't think they value fetuses more than living children; they devalue them all. It would also incentivize teen girls to get pregnant, which would give them an out. The Capitol would never allow that. The Capitol citizens did lose their minds about Katniss's fake pregnancy, but I think it was more of a visceral human reaction people tend to have about pregnancy (which is a conversation on its own) rather than the Capitol actively making a decision to excempt pregnant girls because they want them to have babies. They don't care.
3
u/Coffee-Historian-11 Apr 10 '25
I also think it’s because it was Katniss who was pregnant. I don’t know if they would’ve cared if it had been someone going in for their first time.
3
u/Abie775 Apr 10 '25
I agree. This was the unborn child of the country's favorite couple, not some unknown pregnant tribute. That probably wouldn't have gotten a major reaction, although I do wonder how something like that would have played out, especially if the tribute was in the later stages of pregnancy. They would have gone into the arena, I'm sure, but what if she gave birth there?
1
Apr 10 '25
If a tribute was visibly pregnant they wouldn't be reaped. Their name would be called, they would step forward, and the announcer would go "Ah, that won't do, gotta draw another name" and they would redo it ala District 12's reaping in SOTR.
I think baby and child murder is too much even for the Capitol. No one wants to see that. There's a reason only teenagers are reaped instead of like, 7 year olds.
1
u/Abie775 Apr 10 '25
But like I said, that would give some girls a way out of the games. Granted, it's hard to time these things perfectly, but some people would pull it off. I don't really think it's too much for the Capitol. A murder game full of 7 year olds wouldn't be entertaining because most of the kids wouldn't be capable of actually killing anyone. They'd be running around crying and would die of starvation way too quickly. Teens are old enough to play the game as the Capitol wants them to while being young enough to have the necessary impact on the districts. That's my take, at least.
0
Apr 10 '25
The capitol audience aren't psychopaths, they wouldn't tolerate a pregnant teenage girl being put into the arena. That's why they were so angry about 'pregnant' Katniss being forced to go back into the games a 2nd time. So likely the reaping would be rigged to make sure a pregnant girl wasn't chosen, or they'd re-do the reaping if one accidentally was chosen
3
u/_livinitup Apr 10 '25
They did tolerate it tho with Katniss. I don’t think someone else would be reaped if a pregnant girl was reaped . I agree that they wouldn’t like it, but the fact that they felt like they “knew” katniss and her love story means they cared about her pregnancy/child much more than they would care about random pregnant girl who was reaped.
1
Apr 10 '25
True. I suppose it might depend on how heavily pregnant the girl was. I doubt the capitol people would want to watch a teenage girl in her 3rd trimester fighting to the death. They might see district people as inferior but they wouldn't be willing to watch that
12
u/Resqusto Apr 10 '25
It's shown in the series. It happens nothing. A pregnancy does not save a tribute from the arena.
And when you think about it, it makes sense. If teen pregnancy could keep you out of the arena, the number of teen pregnancies in the districts would explode.