US high school teens get pregnant

BOSTON (Agencies)

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 a high school in Massachusetts, according to school officials.

A high school health clinic in the city of Gloucester became suspicious after seeing a surge in girls seeking pregnancy tests. Local officials said nearly half of those who became pregnant appear to have entered into a pact to have their babies together over the year.

"Some girls seemed more upset when they weren't pregnant than when they were," Gloucester High School principal Joseph Sullivan told Time magazine, which broke news of the pact on its website.

Sullivan was not immediately available to comment. But local officials said at least some of the men involved in the pregnancies were in their mid-20s, including one man who appeared to be homeless. Others were boys in the school.

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.

Carolyn Kirk, mayor of the port city 30 miles (48 km) northeast of Boston, said authorities are looking at whether to pursue statutory rape charges. "We're at the very early stages of wrestling with the complexities of this problem," she said.

"But we also have to think about the boys. Some of these boys could have their lives changed. They could be in serious, serious trouble even if it was consensual because of their age -- not from what the city could do but from what the girls' families could do," she told Reuters.

Under Massachusetts law, it is a crime to have sex with anyone under the age of 16.

"At the very least these men should be held responsible for financial support, if not put in jail for statutory rape as the mayor has suggested," Greg Verga, chairman of the Gloucester School Committee, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Nationwide, teen pregnancies in the United States are showing signs of rising after steadily declining from 1991 to 2005. This trend was highlighted on Thursday when Britney Spears' 17-year-old sister Jamie Lynn, star of Nickelodeon's popular TV show "Zoey 101," gave birth to a baby girl, according to People magazine.

"The data seem to be indicating that the declines that we had seen through the 1990s are coming to a close," said David Landry, a researcher at the Guttmacher Institute, a New York-based nonprofit group focusing on reproductive issues.

Birth rates for teenagers aged 15 to 17 rose by 3 percent in 2006, the first increase since 1991, according to preliminary data released in December by the National Center for Health Statistics.

Officials: High school girls made pact to get pregnant
Bloomington Pantagraph, USA - 6 hours ago
Teens brains aren't fully developed and they couldn't possibly have understood the consequences of getting pregnant this young. ...
Video: Did 17 Girls Make Pact to Get Pregnant? AssociatedPress

Comments

1 -

JUST STUPID

JAMAL [ Friday, June 20, 2008 ]

U CAN FIND ALOT OF WOMEN IN THE U.S.,THEY HAVE KIDS,BUT NEVER BEEN MARRIED.I NEVER DONT UNDERSTANT THAT.JUST IDIOT,AH...............,LETS CHANGE THE CONVERSATION.

2 -

hmm ...Western Women should wear the Veil

Debbie [ Friday, June 20, 2008 ]

They lack self-respect and pride. In order to reduce the high percentage of rape and teenage pregnancies, they should consider wearing the Veil or at least dressing modestly for starters. Before they go around civilizing Muslim women.

3 -

Morality...

Realist [ Friday, June 20, 2008 ]

This is not true morality test of the U.S but it can show where it is heading. This is why some people can not accept a girl with head scarf who do not go out to proms.

4 -

animals

Mike [ Friday, June 20, 2008 ]

A nation of b**ds. *** The fall of western civilization

5 -

nation in breeding

tania [ Friday, June 20, 2008 ]

it's like rabbits.....breeding and breeding

6 -

funny

toto [ Friday, June 20, 2008 ]

hemmmm..it's funny.....while the US always preaching about morality towards other countries....

7 -

No to the Islamic headscarf for Western women!

Jacques Lazier (Paris - France) [ Friday, June 20, 2008 ]

An Islamic headscarf does not prevent any woman from having sex with different men (or women). In Egypt and the Middle East, prostitutes always wear a headscarf... An Islamic headscarf does not make a woman a saint... An Islamic headscarf is the symbol of hypocrisy and undercover (hidden) lust, par excellence

8 -

wrong

abubakar [ Friday, June 20, 2008 ]

it is absolutely awful those young girls to get pregnant but those boys who have engaged sex with these young girls must be jailed if they are enough old

9 -

to jacques @ 7

joseph [ Friday, June 20, 2008 ]

do us the favour and shut the f**k off, u people have no family values. u are the most degrading piece of sh*t. and there u are always barking against the Muslim, go hide your head in the sand

10 -

@ Debbie #2

E. from Denmark [ Saturday, June 21, 2008 ]

Self-respect and pride may mean that a girl is chaste and modest and pious OR it may mean she's sexually active, let's just say promiscuous. It depends on context. These girls seem to have made a pact to enter motherhood, I'm sure the most conservative Muslim would agree that is the very purpose of being a woman. They may be a little young by Western standards, but not by ME standards. They should don the hijab ? Why ? They aren't married, but ideally a woman should not depend on a man. Bottom line, they CHOOSE to have babies, how many of you virtuous Muslim women choose when or whether to have babies or not ?

11 -

There

Hamad ben Khaled - Qatar [ Saturday, June 21, 2008 ]

In Iran, the girls are doing the same thing, they get married for like 3-4 days, get pregnant and then get divorce.

12 -

Thank you Joseph @ 9

Debbie [ Saturday, June 21, 2008 ]

You said it for me...actually i would have added a few more expletives for effect!


In the US, birth rates for teenagers aged 15 to 17 rose by 3 percent in 2006 (File)