Today I decided to watch "The Pregnancy Pact" a lifetime movie based on the Gloucester High pregnancy pact rumors. I've been thinking that its sad that these young ladies felt that becoming pregnant at such a young age didn't matter. May-be its because of my upbringing, but I am shocked that such a thing as a promise to get pregnant with your friends, without a thought of the consequences, exists. I feel the need to talk about this because I personally know three girls who got pregnant in their teens, or at a young age. One of them is my best friend. I remember being so shocked when she told me, that when I cried, I cried almost a week later. She was the outspoken girl who spoke out when other people were doing the wrong thing, so seeing her unmarried and pregnant...it was surreal. But I've learned something through this experience, all the drama we cause spreading gossip and passing blame from parents to Jamie Lynn Spears to the school administration cause us to lose focus the truth that we refuse to face:
1) Parents can't force their children to use protection or to abstain from having sex.
2) A pregnant teen in Hollywood doesn't force 15-year-old Sally to have a baby out of wedlock
3) Passing out condoms in schools cannot possibly increase sexual activity rates in teenagers (If they want to have safe sex, they will BUY condoms).
4) A young girl getting pregnant is no one's fault but her and partner's.
I understand a parent's desire to believe that a teenager is a kid who doesn't know right from left, but that simply isn't true. A sixteen year old girl knows that if she has sex there is a chance of her getting pregnant, and she knows if she uses contraception those chances decrease significantly. If all those organizations took time to recognize that, then may-be we could focus on actually preventing pregnancies from happening.
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