Yikes. I don't even know where to begin with this one. In the small fishing town of Gloucester, Massachusetts, a number of girls -- most of them not any older than 16 -- decided to form a pregnancy pact, promising they would try to get pregnant by the end of the year. Apparently, the girls wanted to raise their children together and were enamored with the idea of young motherhood. Seventeen girls now have a bun in the oven and are happily planning their baby showers and looking up children's names while the girls who did NOT get pregnant are pouting...and probably still trying.
Oh, boy. Or girl. ;)
To make matters worse, one girl apparently had sex with a 24-year old homeless man, the principal said. (Anyone smell a made-for-TV movie in the works?)
This town, described as a "fiercely Catholic enclave," apparently embraces teen pregnancy, providing young moms with an on-site day care center and allowing strollers on campus. What this town (and school) does NOT do, if you haven't already guessed, is provide teenagers with birth control options.
Look...I know religion is religion, and people hold strong beliefs about premarital sex, but...if it hasn't been obvious before, it should be glaringly obvious now: Teenagers are having sex. That's nothing new. They're getting pregnant even when they DO have birth control options. But this situation reeks of negligence. I mean, I kind of don't get it. If the school is willing to accept that teenage girls are having sex, even supposedly devout teenage girls, then why isn't it able to provide birth control to these girls? If it can have an on-site day care center at the local high school, then shouldn't it be able to provide condoms? Or access to a women's health center? (The closest one is about a half-hour away.)
I know babies are a blessing, but in this case, I can only hope that these 17 teenage girls have an amazing support system of family members willing to help raise these kids. I don't want to be judgmental, but this is sad, on so many levels...it's sad that these girls feel they have no other options in life but to rear children at a young age, when THEY themselves are still children; it's sad that schools and parents won't open their eyes and take responsibility; and it's sad that 17 infants will be brought into this world to be guided, and raised, by children who have no income, no steady job, and possibly no guidance.
Read the story here.
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