It’s one of those news stories you think you didn’t hear correctly. Teen girls trying to get pregnant!
It could have happened anywhere, but the town of Gloucester, MA is now trying to figure out why the teen pregnancy rate is four times higher.
Perhaps as usual, we’re asking the wrong questions:
• We’re trying to understand why over 150 girls under the age of sixteen, which very likely means that over 150 girls, under the age of sixteen were having sex
• We scratch our heads and wonder why girls would make a pact to become pregnant
• We look to point the finger at the school, the community and the parents to see who is at fault
• We debate over the use and availability of birth control and parental notification, when we should educate both
• We question the wisdom of making is easy and fun to bring a baby to high school and park a car seat and stroller combo next to the lockers
• We ponder the self esteem issues of young girls that need to feel loved
We follow popular culture in a ignorant stupor as millions are paid for the first picture of Jaime Lynn Spear’s new baby. No doubt the celebrity babies (see an earlier blog on this same topic) have a lot to do with the romantic notion of having children. This is a case where a positive test result leads to a false sense of reality.
What we really need to question is why we are not outraged that so many girls under the age of sixteen are having sex.
Please don’t lecture me on the reality of life. We create our own realities, and we’re so worried about our kids’ self-esteem, that we don’t think about this reality: they are too young to be sexually active. How does that affect their self-esteem?
Parents – talk to your children and be the moral compass in their lives.
Tags: gloucester, Popular culture, pregnant teens
