Massachusetts: “Pregnancy Pact” Questioned by Officials

By Charlie Brett
00:52, June 22nd 2008
67 votes
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It seems that a Massachusetts high school is facing a wave of pregnancies among girls that are about 16-year-old. The Gloucester High School reported having the highest number of pregnancies ever, as 17 girls were expecting babies.

Some referred to this situation as a “pregnancy pact,” because the girls were not at all upset or scared when they heard the news.

According to Pembroke Daily Observer, Supt. Christopher Farmer said that the girls looked very happy when they were told about their pregnancies and even made plans to raise their babies together.

Joseph Sullivan, the principal of the high school, told Time magazine that the girls had allegedly made a pact regarding their pregnancies, which he called it a “pregnancy pact.” He arrived to this conclusion when he found out that they were constantly taking pregnancy test at the school clinic. Moreover, they were very disappointed when the tests came back negative.

On the other hand, Farmer said this was the first time he heard about this pact. He also said he found it very strange that the girls were so happy they were going to become mothers so soon. Mayor Carolyn Kirk, a member of the school committee, said that she thought there was no such pact and other factors like lack of money, after-school programs, were responsible of this situation.

Others have said that the families were to blame and also “the nation’s Hollywood-obsessed culture,” which is saturated with pregnant celebrities, some of them very young. This so- called pact made authorities wonder if this was a new trend.

A reassuring opinion came from Anne Rollins, adolescent health coordinator at the Virginia Department of Health, who said that these teenagers would realize, in time, that a baby is not at all a solution to their problems of insecurity or loneliness.



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