This is pretty disturbing, in my opinion.

As summer vacation begins, 17 girls at Gloucester High School are expecting babies—more than four times the number of pregnancies the 1,200-student school had last year.
 
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All it took was a few simple questions before nearly half the expecting students, none older than 16, confessed to making a pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together.

Then the story got worse. "We found out one of the fathers is a 24-year-old homeless guy," the principal says, shaking his head.

So can I ask, just what the hell is wrong with these people? And what can we do to convince them that it is not ok to get knocked up just because you want someone to "love you unconditionally". Get a freakin' puppy if thats what you want.

But, what can be done? The efforts the've undertaken have been met with hostility and perhaps have even made the problem worse.

The high school has done perhaps too good a job of embracing young mothers. Sex-ed classes end freshman year at Gloucester, where teen parents are encouraged to take their children to a free on-site day-care center. Strollers mingle seamlessly in school hallways among cheerleaders and junior ROTC.

(snip)

Dr. Brian Orr, a local pediatrician, began to advocate prescribing contraceptives regardless of parental consent, a practice at about 15 public high schools in Massachusetts. But the notion of a school handing out birth control pills has been met with hostility. Says Mayor Carolyn Kirk: "Dr. Orr and Ms. Daly have no right to decide this for our children."

Because your children have been such doing a bang-up job of making wise decisions in the first place...

Gloucester's elected school committee plans to vote later this summer on whether to provide contraceptives. But that won't do much to solve the issue of teens wanting to get pregnant. Says rising junior Kacia Lowe, who is a classmate of the pactmakers': "No one's offered them a better option."

A better option? How about NOT getting pregnant, and NOT bringing a child into the world that you can't take care of? How about working hard in high school and going to college? How about getting a job? How about getting some freakin' psychological help before getting knocked up(intentionally) by a homeless guy?

I'm the first to admit i'm not much of a policy wonk. And i have no special insight into "family planning" or "birth control" policy. But there has got to be something that can be done to stop this madness.

So. What's the solution? You can't stop someone from getting pregnant if they are absolutely determined to get pregnant. And it seems these girls are.

Is the solution psychological? Am i a sexist pig for thinking that anyone who wants to get pregnant at such a young age, when they can't even take care of themselves, let alone a baby who will be utterly dependent on them for everything 24 hours a day, needs serious psychological help?

Or is this just an unfortunate part of life that we have to live with, that we've always lived with and probably always will live with?

Or is the solution to somehow convince them that having a baby before you're ready will not make your life better and will greatly limit your opportunities and potential for future success? Isn't that a job for families and not school or public officials? And isn't that fact painfully obvious to anyone with more than half a brain anyway?