The Gloucester High 'Pregnancy Pact.'

From the NYT:

Reached on Thursday, Mayor Carolyn Kirk said the existence of such an agreement was “believable, in the sense that it would explain this spike” in teenage pregnancies.

Ms. Kirk, a member of the school committee, also said that some of those who impregnated the students were men in their mid-20s.

Gloucester is a fishing town of 30,000 that is encountering hardships with the decline of the fishing industry.

“This is a city in transition going through a hard economic time,” Ms. Kirk said. “There are cuts in economic programs, cuts in services, cuts in after-school programs, and they’re all impacting the social climate. We really let these kids down.”

I’m trying to figure out why the coverage of this bothers me so much.

G.D.

G.D.

Gene "G.D." Demby is the founder and editor of PostBourgie. In his day job, he blogs and reports on race and ethnicity for NPR's Code Switch team.
G.D.

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  • Tasha

    The school clinic’s medical director and its chief nurse practitioner both resigned in May after the hospital that administers grants for the clinic opposed making contraceptives available to students.

    wild…

  • LH

    I’ve yet to understand what sense it makes to oppose contraception. Is the hospital that administers grants for the clinic going to help raise these kids?

  • LH: We don’t know what the logic in this case is, but a common argument against it are that providing birth control encourages sexual activity.

    *cues up umbrella/rain analogy*

  • rakia

    Gloucester is mostly Roman Catholic. Their religious beliefs prohibit the use of contraceptives, and not just among teens. That’s why folks are so against having condoms, birth control, etc at the school.

  • The reporting of the story bothers me, too. All the pieces seem to fit together too well. A news item, (17 pregnant high school girls), is connected to some larger issue (Gloucester’s decline and negative media influences), and quotes from officials and experts connect any missing parts. We’re missing a lot by not being able to hear from these girls, who we know nothing about. I just hope some media outlet, (don’t disappoint me, Boston Globe), gets an interview with at least one.

  • LH

    G.D.: A common, uninformed and ill-conceived argument. It isn’t as though not providing birth control discourages sexual activity, yanno?

    Where kids and sex are concerned the toothpaste is already out of the tube. Hiding behind religious beliefs in this case seems almost cruel.

  • LH: You’ll get no argument from me, fam. It seems to be wishful thinking on the part of the people of Gloucester.

    Adults can go elsewhere and get condoms. Teenagers technically can, but aren’t likely to holler at the Rite-Aid to cop some rubbers. So why take the condoms/birth control out of the places they CAN get it?

  • K.

    Hmmm. If these girls were determined to get pregnant then I’m not sure if access to contraceptives is to blame here. I would LOVE to hear from the girls. This story would have a different slant if it happened in, say, West Philly. There would be less talk about “hardships” and more talk about “lascivious teen girls.”

  • It bothers you because it’s awfully like the lipstick blowjob party rumors: all, “ooh, these kids today! they’re decadent and evil!” It’s not the high pregnancy rate; it’s the idea that there was some nefarious and sekrit “pact” that the girls had to Do This Bad Thing . . . to themselves?

    And because pregnancy *in and of itself* isn’t that big a fucking deal, anyway.

  • Grump

    I think they just put a “nice” spin on something that happened to folks in the inner-city 30 years ago. Declining jobs, slowing down economy, etc…etc…etc…

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