Teen “Pregnancy Pact”: The Perfect Storm?
The shocking news from the small fishing town of Gloucester, Massachusetts spread across the country and around the world: 17 girls from one high school were pregnant, part of a supposed ‘pregnancy pact’ in which the students intentionally set out to become teen mothers, with a vow to raise their babies together.
It wasn’t the first time Gloucester made international headlines. The tragic 1991 loss at sea of a Gloucester fishing boat and its crew prompted the book and the movie “The Perfect Storm.”
Now a tidal wave of finger-pointing about who or what was responsible for so many pregnancies tipped toward a “perfect storm” of outside influences.
Some blamed Gloucester’s depressed local economy and the demise of its once-thriving fishing industry. Others indicted so-called broken families and directionless youth. Gloucester High, it was suggested, had brought the predicament on itself, by providing easily accessible on-campus day care for the babies of student mothers. And Hollywood shouldered its share of responsibility—the movie “Juno” was blamed for glamorizing unwed teen motherhood, and the media’s obsession with pregnant celebs having babies as “accessories” was called out as well.
But soon cracks began to appear in the cultural blame game. A reproductive specialist noted that the pregnancy trend at Gloucester High began before “Juno” hit the theaters. Gloucester’s mayor said the pregnancy rate was a statistical “blip” and rued the lack of health education funding. And the School Superintendent stated that he’d never heard the term “pact” used by the students, only by the media.
After days of silence, one of the girls finally appeared on national television. 17-year-old Lindsey Oliver denied the existence of a pact. “There was a group of girls already pregnant that decided they were going to help each other to finish school and raise their kids together,” she said. “I think it was just a coincidence.”
Tell us what you think: Are the Gloucester teen pregnancies the result of a “perfect storm” of outside influences, or does responsibility lie elsewhere?
Add Comment Share This
Comments
wow
You’re really open with your opinion but you need to know something not every girl is trying to get money from little boys that don’t have hobbies, as you say. I am 18 and have a 4 year old and yes it was my choice to keep her but it wasn’t my choice to have sex. I was walking down the road in daylight and was raped.
There is something you will never get to understand and that is the bond between a mother and child. I couldn’t bring myself to get “rid” of her. I’m glad there are still real men in the world because my husband loves her like his own.
I just thought I should let you know that you’re wrong.
tillie coleman | 1 year, 4 months ago
Add Comment | Post Reply
TV today
Have you seen the new show “The Secret Life of an American Teenager”… I know that they are trying to discourage teen sex and pregnancy from happening but I don’t think it will. Although it might be a good show for parents to watch that are dealing with a pregnant teen, that doesn’t mean the child should watch it.
Jacquelyn L. Goranson | 1 year, 4 months ago
Add Comment | Post Reply
One Comment
Quite simply put, though many people feel as if abortion should be outlawed, like we should be putting chastity belts on our teenagers, the one question still remains: Why do we all bother with the lives of these teenagers? To put it blatantly, it was their own wrong choice to get pregnant to begin with. So, we should learn from it, and teach our own kids not to do such stupid things. It’s the same point with abortion. Why do you care if someone else aborts their own unborn fetus? The adoption line is long. And what’s worse? having an abortion, or having a child born into a world where it is unloved? Just a point in making: Learn about the lives of others, and correct your own life off of the mistakes they make, but don’t try to make their decisions.
Average Person | 1 year, 4 months ago
Add Comment | Post Reply
Adopted
From my own personal experience of being adopted I will tell you that it is a much better route than abortion. The only trouble with adoption in today’s world is the rights that the fathers have in signing off on them. Back in the 1980s this was not the case and adoption was new back then so fathers of these adopted children usually didn’t even know about them. I know that my birth mother never told my birth father about me and he still doesn’t know today!
Jacquelyn L. Goranson | 1 year, 4 months ago
Add Comment | Post Reply
Not a debate on adoption v abortion
Framing abortion as wrong because you were adopted not aborted makes no sense. You could also not exist if they had used a condom. There are billions of people who do not exist because of birth control. Lack of logic has to stop entering these discussions because they help people go on being delusional. I was adopted. So what? Had I not been created there would not be a clone of me somewhere crying and whining: I didn’t get a life.
Ann | 1 year, 4 months ago
Add Comment | Post Reply
Not exactly
Well, I’m a teenage mom myself. I have graduated this year and am going to college. It is not exactly okay to get abortions because you and your partner knew what the consequences might be. So, if you could take the chance – prepare for the potential of having the baby. Really, at 3 months you can call it a baby because it is a living human being that’s inside. It would just be that it’s not fully developed.
What I can say to the other teens is be very careful and use protection? It’s not easy to raise a baby. Because teens will have sex anyway… it makes them feel comfortable and popular.
LaVita Hubbard | 1 year, 4 months ago
Add Comment | Post Reply
thanks
Thanks, Lavita. I appreciated your input-I guess that maybe I stated myself too strongly on abortion-I would see it as wrong if you knew good and well that having sex with a guy, there’s a strong possibility that a child would come out of that. Knowing that and knowing you don’t want a baby…so abort it? I would see that as very wrong.
Thanks too, for what you said about a baby at 3 mos-I did research that and I have always read up on things. Yes, it’s a fetus, but really, it’s a baby.
D.S | 1 year, 4 months ago
Add Comment | Post Reply
Chastising them will not help!!!!!
All that I am hearing is how these girls should not have become pregnant or how they should have gotten abortions. No one is saying anything about what we as a society should do to help these girls. Their decision to keep their babies is an extremely personal one and it is their right to choose. Am I wrong or is that the whole basis for the pro choice campaign? I find it funny that when the girl chooses life people criticize them for their decision. We all have to remember that it is their choice!
What these girls need now is help and support! Automatically assuming that these girls will be horrible parents is not right either. Have any of you stopped and thought about how your comments may affect their ability to be a good parent? If you tell a person that they are incapable over and over, eventually they will believe it. These girls love their babies and want the best for them. Parenting is hard enough when you are older; imagine what these girls are going through. Support them, encourage them and give them the tools to succeed! What is done is done and we have to move forward from here. Like it or not these babies will be born and they are going to be part of our society. Let’s give them a fighting chance and help these girls.
Charlotte | 1 year, 4 months ago
Add Comment | Post Reply
Tortured and abused?
Tortured and abused? I don’t think that these girls are keeping their babies because they want to hurt them. Most teenage girls are not that sadistic! They are keeping them because they love them and they feel that it is what is best for them.
Charlotte | 1 year, 4 months ago
Add Comment | Post Reply
Teen Pregnancy
The main point to consider is personal responsibility. As in case after case in the United States, there is no personal accountability for actions. It’s always someone else’s fault and everyone is duped by advertising, movies, books, etc, etc, etc. If individuals were held accountable for their own behavior then we’d see a lot of these issues resolved.
Janne Robbins | 1 year, 4 months ago
Add Comment | Post Reply
< 1 2 3 4 5 > Last » (100 pages)