Thirty miles outside of Boston, Massachusetts in a small fishing town part of Cape Ann Peninsula, sits the city of Gloucester, America’s oldest working seaport. Known for its beautiful harbor, famous beaches, historic inns, ancient lighthouses, legendary painters, and fresh seafood, Gloucester can now add to its lists of attractions: Gloucester High School Teen Pregnancy Club. This strange club boasts a membership of 17 girls from Gloucester High School.
TIME first reported the story earlier in the week, reporting 17 girls at Gloucester High School are expecting babies—more than four times the number of pregnancies the 1,200-student school had last year. Some adults dismissed the statistic as a blip. Others blamed hit movies like Juno and Knocked Up for glamorizing young unwed mothers. But Principal Joseph Sullivan knows at least part of the reason there's been such a spike in teen pregnancies in this Massachusetts fishing town. School officials started looking into the matter as early as October after an unusual number of girls began filing into the school clinic to find out if they were pregnant. By May, several students had returned multiple times to get pregnancy tests, and on hearing the results, "some girls seemed more upset when they weren't pregnant than when they were," Sullivan says. All it took was a few simple questions before nearly half the expecting students, none older than 16, confessed to making a pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together. Then the story got worse. "We found out one of the fathers is a 24-year-old homeless guy," the principal says, shaking his head.
According to Guttmacher Institute, each year almost 750,000 women ages 15-19 become pregnant. In general, states with the highest number of teenagers had the highest number of teenage pregnancies. In 2000, the states with highest teenage birthrates were Mississippi, Texas, Arizona, Arkansas, and New Mexico. The states with the lowest birthrates were New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, North Dakota, and Maine. Although Massachusetts is ranked as one of the states with the lowest teen birthrates, the sudden rise in pregnancy among Gloucester High School teens is alarming.
What would cause 17 adolescent women to make a pact to become pregnant while in high school? And how can we prevent more teenagers from “joining the club?”
Please share your comments.
5 comments:
This Glouscester High School teen pregnancy pact sure sounds like your typical "self-destructive" behavior seen by young people as a society becomes more of a social state and less is expected of them by society. These kids all know that the government will pay for all the costs of their pregnancies and their baby's care till the babies grow up at age 18. You see, these kids really don't see any consequences to having a baby. Call it a tragedy, but I live in New Orleans, and very few pregnant mothers get married down here (even when they live with the father) because they'll lose their government benefits. The liberals WANT a dependent citizenry so they just give out the checks. No questions asked. If you don't believe me, then ask ANYONE from New Orleans about the "baby mama scam!"
Why are these girls being punished?
In a March fundraiser, Barack Obama excoriated abstinence-only education with harsh language. “Look, I got two daughters – nine years old and six years old,” he said. “I am going to teach them first about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”
They just made some mistakes!!! Call Gloucester Planned Parenthood and tell them to plan to work late this week.
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