Quick link: A Time story on access to birth control, babies for unconditional love, “fierce” Catholicism, economic depression, and over a dozen (no older than) 16 year-old girls who made a pact to get pregnant at the same time: Pregnancy Boom at Gloucester High
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nine comments
I think this is so cool. Young women are often disallowed from making sexual choices and here they are making a highschool pact to have babies! I find it weird that a Religious highschool is against the contraceptives but also against the rampant pregnancies! Go Girls for working to point out these hypocrisies! I also am disappointed that Time is relying on the quote of someone OLDER than the pregnant girls who isn't even one of the currently pregnant girls. And getting a quote from her saying that teenage-motherhood isn't all it's cracked up to be? Of course it's difficult! Ba!
Posted by diandra
June 21, 2008, 4 AM
Says Mayor Carolyn Kirk: "Dr. Orr and Ms. Daly have no right to decide this for our children."
Because you, the mayor, who so clearly has a finger on the pulse of the youth, has every right to decide. It's not even making the decision for them, last time I checked, birth control was still an option.
Posted by Eirian
June 22, 2008, 12:16 AM
Diandra, I don't think this is quite the intelligently motivated activism you want it to be. This 'pact' is now a lifetime of raising a child alone, potentially with some health problems if indeed one of the girls was actually impregnated by a 24 year old homeless man. (STIs perhaps?)
I'd be more impressed with a group of teen girls setting up a contraceptive pact, smuggling condoms in schools, hijacking a bus full of birth control, etc. Basically advocating safe and responsible sex instead of reckless and possibly selfish motherhood.
Posted by Danielle
June 23, 2008, 3:23 PM
But they aren't alone, they are together.
And can we watch the class thing? Replace "homeless" with "poor" and you will see what you sound like.
Posted by K-L
June 24, 2008, 2:09 AM
What do they mean by "raise their babies together"? In a collective manner, like on a kibbutz or something? Or just over the same time period? And is the first idea cool or kind of creepy/cultish? I like the idea of young women rethinking family norms, but is that actually what's going on here? The thing about this story is because the girls themselves aren't really giving us much in the way of reasoning, we're bound to project all kinds of ideologies onto their actions, accurately or not.
Posted by Anna
June 24, 2008, 12:26 PM
A lot of these comments are based on articles that involve a LOT of speculating.
I just found an article that actually speaks to one of the young women (and the future father of their child) and it clarifies a lot of things.
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/...
Not only did they NOT decide to get pregnant together this young woman speaks very clearly about the lack of sexual health information and contraceptives in her school. Anyway, read it for yourselves.
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/...
Posted by tuval
June 24, 2008, 12:31 PM
Well i don't think that its right to get preg. when your young because than you can't go out and do anything. I should know I had mine young. Babies are a joy to have around but its a big big big responsability.
Posted by DH
June 30, 2008, 12:01 AM
This is not the act of intelligent women. This is not for defensive or to point out wrongs. It is the romantic notion of being an adult. The are not adults. Who brings a child in to this world without the means to suppor the child or provide for the child's future. Do the odds of High school friends staying to in touch? Do you know who really will be raising those babies - the parents of the idiots who made this pact. A 24 year old man poor or homeless or whatever -- He could have had aids for all they knew. Being pregnant is the least of the concerns with aids. These kids are not adding to solution -- they are the problem. Kids doing things without thinking things without factoring in price or the effects on others. I feel for their parents.
Posted by David
July 1, 2008, 4:29 PM
I think this is selfish and irresponsible. Sure, it'll get the attention of angry adults more than a covert condom "smuggling" operation, but it is incredibly,well,stupid. I will always say there is nothing mature about getting pregnant when you are still a child yourself, still don't know what you are going to do with yourself, and don't have a stable life. As well,and any intelligent person can tell you that movies like Juno or Knocked Up are meant to be construed as cautionary tales.
If anything good can come of this story, I hope it's the push for safe, informed choices of birth control. It is a much better alternative for a young woman to own her sexuality, rather than getting, well, "knocked up"
Posted by sgt.peppermint
July 6, 2008, 12:55 AM
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