Teen Pregnancy Pact Discovered at Gloucester, Massachusetts, High School

The various debates about pregnancy, especially involving teenagers, have already taken up a lot of space in the last few years. Engulfing real life celebrity teens and hit movies, teen pregnancy remains one of those hot button issues that can fan many a flame. The latest example of that comes from the town of Gloucester, Massachusetts, where teen pregnancy -- through a teen pregnancy pact -- has become an epidemic seemingly on purpose. A large number of high school sophomores at Gloucester High School have been found to be pregnant, with the number of those girls going through teen pregnancy being as high as 17. What's more, they made a pact to become pregnant on purpose.

The school health clinic faced a recent increase in girls under 16 seeking pregnancy tests, which caused officials to investigate possible teen pregnancy. Since then, it has been discovered that these Gloucester girls decided to go through teen pregnancy in a pregnancy pact, planning to raise all their babies together. As such, they have had sex with Gloucester males for the purposes of getting pregnant. Early reports indicate some of these males are boys from Gloucester High School, some are men in their mid 20's, while one girl even got pregnant by a homeless man. Many of these Gloucester girls are 16 or younger, so some of the males could face statutory rape charges. Even if the sex was consensual, it is a crime under Massachusetts to have sex with a girl younger than 16 under any circumstance.

Teen pregnancy has made recent big headlines before with the likes of Jamie Lynn Spears, who gave birth to her baby just yesterday, and movies like Juno. As such,the rush to blame Hollywood for this has already begun. This avenue of blame has been dismissed by Gloucester School Committee Chairman Greg Verga, since this trend has been around well before Jamie Lynn and before Juno and Knocked Up.