Teen Pregnancy Pact: Symptom of Larger Problem
I was shocked and appalled to read the Time magazine piece published online Wednesday about a pregnancy pact at Gloucester High School in Massachusetts that led to 17 pregnancies over this past school year in girls age 16 and younger. This is four times the number of pregnancies that the 1,200-student school had last year, according to Time. Apparently, a number of girls made a pact to get pregnant in order to bring someone into the world who would love them unconditionally. The school also provides immense support for teenage parents, allowing them to bring their babies to a school daycare center. After administering more than 100 pregnancy tests to students this year, the story says, the school nurse in Gloucester was so desperate that she wanted to start handing out contraceptives without parental consent.
The debate over how to prevent teen pregnancy is one that's raging throughout the country. Is it better to teach teens about contraception or just encourage them to abstain from sex until they're married? Just yesterday, women's health advocates were celebrating a planned budget increase of $15 million in Title X family planning services, which provide contraception and reproductive health services to low-income women and men. They were also happy to see that funding for abstinence-only education programs was not slated to be increased. (I was, though, dismayed to hear that a planned amendment to the funding bill probably won't be included in the final legislation. It would have allowed drug companies to once again sell deeply discounted birth control pills to college health centers—a practice that had to stop last year under new Medicaid rules.)
But I think the solution shouldn't focus solely on sex education. (The girls in Gloucester got sex-ed classes—although the classes ended freshman year of high school, according to Time.) I think educators need to address the larger problem: how to foster self-esteem, long-term goals, and pursuit of dreams in girls from broken families facing economic hardships. Supposedly, the Gloucester community is suffering a severe decline in its fishing industry, which almost certainly has put a strain on families. And desperation often drives some girls to get pregnant—perhaps a way to ensure that some piece of them will survive. I think we all need to realize that handing out condoms isn't the complete answer. I previously reported on what's needed for real pregnancy prevention in an article about abstinence education.
Tags: teen pregnancy | abstinence | teens | pregnancy
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Reader Comments
Teenager's point of view
I think kids are having sex because the parent don't care what their children are exposed to anymore. All of the media television songs they listen to and all the advertisements everywhere all are very sexual and teenagers think that stuff is glamorous. To have a sexual relationship would seem glamourous these days!
Bill
The history of teaching absence to prevent premarital sex has shown its a complete and utter failure. In the history of man kind it has never worked. They fail either by lying to children and keeping them in the dark about contraceptives (which makes them ignore the program). Or the idea of driving idology down their throats turns them off.
But the author isn’t arguing for absitence only programs in this article or in the one linked at the end. The author actually spoke in favor of selling discounted contraceptives at college health centers.
Fostering self-esteem however is a completely different matter, With 17 or more girls making a pact to get pregnant intentionally. No sex education or abstinence course will deter them. Your right about that. The mentality that motherhood may be the only future with love or happiness for them is the problem. Its similar to the prom baby deal.
BUT, It's COOL to have a BABY!!!
Personally, I think a LOT of the problem lies in the in the way that our media portrays the stars as mothers. The magzine "gossip" geared media make having a baby look so easy for stars like Britney Spears and others. They show Britney's all over town with her little boy on her hip carrying a starbucks coffee with the lastest pair of designer sunglasses, and Angelina Jolie running all over town with her clan in tow. What todays teenagers do not see is the fact that MOST stars have baby nurses to sit up all night when the newborn wakes up, and nannies(more than one mind you) for ALL daily activities, including diaper changes. They do not see that it really takes being up All night, all day and then some to make it through the first few months, and that you don't always look so fabulous when you step out the door, because you do not have the luxury of someone else caring for little billy, that in reality, you are the one getting thrown up on at the last minute when you walk out the door. I am a young mother and wife and live in uppermiddle class society and could have chosen to have full time nannies for all of my boys, but I DID NOT want someone else raising my child. Those are the best moments in life and should be cherished! These are the luxuries of the stars that give our teenage girls a false sense of what it is like to be a mom. The real experience is much much different.
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