The Pregnancy Pact

The Pregnancy Pact is a Lifetime movie that is set to air this Saturday at 8 PM.  Inspired by a true story, it explores the teen pregnancy spike that has been occurring nationwide.  The movie is a dramatization of the seventeen high school girls from Gloucester High School in Massachusetts that were pregnant at the same time in 2008.  Rumors of a pact between a group of girls to all get pregnant emerged and the story was thrust into the national spotlight.  All of the girls were under 16 years old and many had slept with random men in order to get pregnant.  One of the fathers was a 24-year old homeless man.  The pact was later confirmed when girls were showing up at the school nurse’s office and were upset that they weren’t getting pregnant.  The girls wanted to all have babies and raise them together. The Pregnancy Pact is based off of this incredible story and tries to address some of the deeper issues connected with such young girls wanting to get pregnant. 

The rise in teen pregnancies could be attributed to the increase in movies and TV shows portraying young unmarried moms, such as Juno and Knocked Up.  Others looked to the focus on the glamorization of celebrity moms and their children, like Katie Holmes and Nicole Richie.  For a while in Hollywood, it seemed like every woman was getting pregnant and every tabloid magazine was riddled with their pictures and stories.  It is not unbelievable then to think that young women across America would think that teenage pregnancy is desirable and could potentially bring them happiness, wealth, and fame. 

After this incident, shows like Teen Mom attempt to show the reality of young pregnancy.  It shows the strain that it puts on their lives and the impact that having a child at such a young age can have.  I plan on watching this movie and will be interested to see the deeper issues that it delves into when analyzing teenage pregnancy.