Do you believe the 17 pregnant teenagers in Gloucester, Massachusetts made a "pregnancy pact"?

Yes

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by Sarah Vigue

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Time magazine wrote an article on the 17 pregnant teenagers called, "Pregnancy Boom at Gloucester High." Once the magazine hit the stands, every major radio and television station fanned the flames. Not only are 17 young women pregnant, but there was a pregnancy pact and one of the fathers is a 24 year old homeless man. The mayor is now disputing that there was ever any pregnancy agreement and states that Principal Sutherland cannot remember who told him that there was a pact. Thus, it is not a fact on which the public should rely. Is it possible, though, that a group of girls barely out of puberty and just entering high school felt that being pregnant among and with friends and raising sweet, little babies together would be a happy and supportive life experience?

Of course it makes sense on one level. Every one has a sob story whether it is from an unhealthy home life, depressed economy and how it affects individuals or the awkward and sometimes absolutely humiliating experience of going through hormonal changes during puberty. Life is not easy and certainly young people have made what we consider to be extreme choices for ages. Romeo and Juliet were how old when they fell madly in love and killed themselves? It doesn't matter, you get the point. Many social and biological factors can be to blame. These factors may not matter at all because these young women are old enough to give live and maybe should be held accountable for their actions instead of leaning on excuses.

With such a spike in teen pregnancy, however, it is virtually impossible to not delve into whether or not this pact truly existed, why it was made and how it happened. To anyone who moves to or lives on the North Shore of Massachusetts, the reputation of Gloucester is well known. It is considered a "weird" place to live. Being a historical and out of the way town with some locals that "never cross the bridge" to the mainland, Gloucester is the home to the Oldest Seaport that boasts a long line of fisherman immigrants that developed its economy fromyou guessed it: fishing. Historic districts are always touted for maintaining past ways of life, but with tradition comes a certain amount of reluctance to change.

Gloucester pedestrian and drivers traverse cracked roads with pot holes, past the seedy parts of town and see abandoned warehouses and old mills and the section of the island where people hang around for countless hours each day because the fishing economy is not at all what it used to be. Not far from the tourist attractions and the million dollar homes that attract so many people the absolutely gorgeous parts of the town are the homeless shelter and AIDS resource center. The drug use history of Gloucester is another issue, as is the AIDS problem, but it is possible that a group of maturing young women would make poor choices when they are growing up in a very small town that is not only suffering from a large drop in it's main import/export (the fishing industry and the related jobs) but also has around it a stigma of people who are "stuck" struggling through bleak lives. After all, one of the fathers in this teen drama is a homeless man. How many emotionally healthy 15 year olds create babies with a 24 year old homeless man?

On another level, Gloucester High School has taken very advanced steps towards being more modern. Young mothers can get support from the school and the Pathways for Children day-care center and even receive birth control with parental consent. Tradition certainly is not the main problem, in this case. Time magazine reports that one former student, Amanda Ireland, felt so much support that she had to explain that pregnancy and parenting is not all roses. However, "some of her now pregnant schoolmates regularly approached her in the hall, remarking how lucky she was to have a babythey're so excited to finally have someone to love them unconditionally." Ireland's first hand experience could not prove in a court of law that one third of the 17 girls chose to make a pact to have a baby, but why else would these girls make a pact- an agreement, to become pregnant together, to become mothers together and to raise their children together? It sounds like the idea of love and support drew these young women together and that they felt that they would end up pregnant sooner or later. With no other known prospects and at a fairly young age without much exposure to the rest of the world, why wouldn't these girls make a pact?

Proof that a pregnancy pact was made last October when girls started filing into the school nurse's office, upset that there were not pregnant is not really needed. Tell tale signs are proof enough. A look at various aspects of the Gloucester culture, the good and the bad aspects, certainly explain a lot and raise many questions on what needs to be done and why this event is happening now. The attention received will affect the school administration and its members' reaction as it already has. It makes sense that Principal Sutherland forgets who told him of the pregnancy pact. After all, Gloucester High School is making history not for high test scores or for a champion sports team, but for having 17 girls under the age of 16 years old pregnant. The attention will breed many statements, as seen already. But being criticized for supposedly copying the under aged girl from Juno or Jaime Lynn Spears, also known as Britney Spears' little sister who does the show Zoe 101, the girls may deny or remain mute to the public. Maybe the underage girls are afraid their boyfriends and the one homeless man will be arrested for statutory rape! Is it likely that it will be credibly revealed that there was a pact, especially now that these young ladies have made national headlines? We already know: some of these young women made a pact, some did not and all of them are expecting to become under aged mothers.

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