There was an article in Time Magazine last week that had a lot of people talking. It claimed that 17 teen girls at Glouchester High School in Northeastern Massachusetts were pregnant after many of them made a pact to have babies and raise their children together. The high school in the small economically-depressed fishing t
own has just 1,200 students, and 17 pregnancies represents an increase of 4 times the amount of teen pregnancies the year before. The story raised all sorts of ethical issues about whether the media attention paid to Jamie Lynn Spear’s pregnancy at 16 and movies like the Oscar-winning film Juno glorified teen pregnancy and made a difficult and life-altering choice seem fun and attainable. Free day-care and a baby-friendly policy at the school also were cited as potential incentives for young girls to get pregnant.
One of the pregnant girls from Glouchester went on Good Morning America this morning with her boyfriend to talk about the pregnancy boom at her school. Five months pregnant Lindsay Oliver, 17, said that there was no “pregnancy pact,” but that a lot of the young pregnant girls did vow to raise their babies together.
Lindsay: “There was definitely no pact. There was a group of girls who decided… they were already pregnant before they decided this… that they were gonna help each other with their kids so they could finish school and raise their kids together. To do the right thing was their decision, not ‘let’s get pregnant, as a group.’” [Transcribed from video of GMA shown above]
When asked why so many teens were pregnant, Lindsay’s boyfriend Andrew Solitas said “I saw in the press conference that they can’t even confirm that there were 17 girls who were pregnant. I guess girls are just unlucky.”
Andrew, 20, is working full time and goes to community college. He said that his girlfriend Lindsay, 17, was on birth control but that she still got pregnant.
When asked if there was any reason that so many girls got pregnant, Lindsay said it “was just a coincidence.” She denied that the film Juno encouraged her. She said she didn’t understand why people thought the movie even glamorized pregnancy, because “In Juno she couldn’t even take care of the baby, she gave it up for adoption.” She also denied that Jamie Lynn’s pregnancy influenced her.
As for the way the school doesn’t distribute contraceptives, Lindsay seemed to indicate that did make a difference. She said “They won’t put any kind of contraceptive in the nurse’s office.. they should be giving them out.” She said “[kids are] obviously having it [sex] anyway” when asked about it.
Andrew and Lindsay said they will name their baby, due November 12, Chloe Jade. He said “we’re trying to do everything we can to make it right for the mistake that we made.”
