PlayUS teen 'pregnancy pact' probed
Published: Friday, 20 June 2008, 9:45AM
An apparent teenage "pregnancy pact" which has resulted in 17 schoolgirls expecting babies is being investigated by authorities in the US.
Staff at a secondary school health clinic in the city of Gloucester, Massachusetts, became suspicious after seeing a surge in girls, none over the age of 16, seeking pregnancy tests.
Gloucester High School principal Joseph Sullivan said: "Some girls seemed more upset when they weren't pregnant than when they were."
In the past academic year, the school with 1,200 students, which is located around 30 miles northeast of Boston, administered 150 pregnancy tests. It forbids the distribution of condoms and other contraception without parental consent.
Chairman of the Gloucester School Committee, Greg Verga, said: "But even if we had contraceptives, that pact shows that if they wanted to get pregnant, they will get pregnant. Whether we distribute contraceptives is irrelevant."
However, Mr Verga denied the situation is being attributed to the teenage pregnancy film Juno or Hollywood hit Knocked Up, saying: "The trend emerged before those movies."
Under Massachusetts law, it is a crime to have sex with anyone under the age of 16 and Gloucester Mayor Carolyn Kirk said statutory rape charges could be pursued as least some of the men involved in the pregnancies were in their mid-20s.
One is a 24-year-old homeless man while others are boys in the school.
Ms Kirk said: "We're at the very early stages of wrestling with the complexities of this problem. 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."
US teenage pregnancies are showing signs of rising after steadily declining from 1991 to 2005. According to the National Centre for Health Statistics, birth rates for teenagers aged 15 to 17 rose by 3 per cent in 2006, the first increase since 1991.
On Thursday, Britney Spears' 17-year-old sister Jamie Lynn gave birth to a baby girl, according to People magazine.
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