Baby Mamas

Mass. teen girls made pregnancy pact

GLOUCESTER, Mass. (AP) — A pact made by a group of teens to get pregnant and raise their babies together is at least partly behind a sudden spike in pregnancies at Gloucester High School, school officials said.
Principal Joseph Sullivan told Time magazine in a story published Wednesday that the girls confessed to making the pact after the school began investigating a rise in pregnancies that has left 17 girls at the school carrying a child. Normally, there are about four pregnancies a year at the school.
Sullivan told Time that nearly half of the expecting students, none over 16, were involved. Sullivan said students were coming to the school clinic multiple times to get pregnancy tests, and "seemed more upset when they weren't pregnant than when they were."
Some of the girls reacted to the news they were pregnant with high fives and plans for baby showers, Sullivan said. One of the fathers "is a 24-year-old homeless guy," Sullivan told the magazine.
Superintendent Christopher Farmer confirmed the deal to WBZ-TV, saying the girls had "an agreement to get pregnant."
He said the girls are generally "girls who lack self-esteem and have a lack of love in their life."
The first reports of the students' apparent plan to get pregnant were in the Gloucester Daily Times in March, when Sullivan said students were reporting that the girls were getting pregnant on purpose.
The rash of pregnancies has shaken the seaside city about 30 miles north of Boston. Last month, two officials at the high school health center resigned to protest the resistance from the local hospital to the confidential distribution of contraceptives. The hospital administers the state money that funds the clinic.

This makes me sad on so many levels. Sad that these girls were uneducated/ignorant enough to make this pact. Sad that their lives as teenagers are about to come to a screeching halt, before they even get driver's licenses. But mostly sad for these babies.

What happened? The media is blaming movies such as Juno and Knocked Up. But like the saying, "Guns don't kill people...people kill people", movies don't impregnate...people do that. So what happened? The superintendent says that they were girls who "lack self-esteem and have a lack of love in their lives." I'm cautious here...who is this according to? Generally, superintendents are not really "in the know" when it comes to the students. They tend to be on the outside, in neat offices, rather than down in the trenches. So who fed that statement to him? The girls who, like most teenagers, probably don't feel like they get enough attention? The teachers? We don't always know what's going on either.

But back to the babies. What happens now? How many will be raised by 15 year old mothers, who really WON'T be the ones raising and supporting them financially? How many will be raised by 35 year old grandparents, who weren't even finished raising their own children let alone their grandchildren? How many will be dumped into an already overloaded foster care system, where they are likely to be moved from home to home to home? I have a coworker who miscarried their perfectly healthy baby at 8 months. Another who is currently paying thousands for IVF in order to have a child with her second husband. A friend who had two miscarriages trying to conceive her third child. Another who, after years of searching for the right man and not succeeding decided to try AI, and was then told, in her mid-30s, that her eggs were "too old" and it was not likely to happen. All women who are financially stable, have good jobs, 4 out 5 with supportive spouses, all suffering trauma. And yet a group of under 16-year-olds are successful.

I think the babies should have a say. Years ago I saw a Shirley Temple movie, the name of which I cannot remember. But there's a scene where all the babies are gathered up in heaven, looking down. When it's "their time" they ride down on a cloud to the waiting parents. Okay, not realistic, I know. But I love that image. Wouldn't it be wonderful if these babies could CHOOSE the life they were entering into? Then those parents who were responsible and ready would be rewarded, without heartache, and those who weren't would not be punished, exactly, but would not receive that child until the time was right.

Some things would be so much easier if you took the science out of it.