Gloucester Mayor Blames Bush for 17 Pregnant Teens

Since TIME first wrote last week of this "pact," as Sullivan called it, a media firestorm has hit this seaside town on Massachusetts' north shore. News outlets from as far away as Australia and Brazil have been quick to home in on the more salacious details surrounding these young mothers-to-be. But at a press conference today, Gloucester Mayor Carolyn Kirk emerged from a closed-door meeting with city, school and health officials to say that there had been no independent confirmation of any teen pregnancy pact. She also said that the principal, who was not present at the meeting, is now "foggy in his memory" of how he heard about the pact.

She said none of the school's health workers who deal with the girls on a daily basis had heard any mention of a pact. Instead, she attributed the pregnancies to a lack of funding for health education because of increased spending needed to meet federally mandated standards known as No Child Left Behind.

She also blamed the media's "glamorization of pregnancy" and "movies that depicted teen pregnancy as something to be desired."

City and school officials in this city of about 30,000 approximately 30 miles north of Boston have been struggling for months to explain and deal with the pregnancies, where on average only four girls a year at the 1,200-student high school become pregnant.

Just last month, two officials at the high school health center resigned to protest the local hospital's refusal to support a proposal to distribute contraceptives to youngsters at the school without parental consent.

"We need to do something. Period," said Greg Verga, chairman of the district's school committee, adding "we're going to discuss it as a committee with the public and some professionals to give us some recommendations and we'll see what we can do to avoid this down the road."

Kirk said budget cuts in the last six years has slashed services for students, including health education. The school district does not provide contraceptives for students.

But the heavily Roman Catholic town, which has a large Italian and Portuguese population, has long been supportive of teen mothers. The high school has a day care center for students and employees.

A spike in teen pregnancy at Gloucester High School has renewed a fierce debate over contraceptives in public schools and put its school-based health center in the spotlight.

Gloucester High, where 17 pregnancies were diagnosed at its clinic this year, is one of 47 Massachusetts schools with a health center licensed by the state Department of Public Health. The centers, which are run by local healthcare providers, aim to expand access to medical care, particularly for students in low-income and urban areas.

"The focus is to keep kids healthy so they can stay in school," said Dr. Lauren Smith, medical director at the Department of Public Health. "They see kids for a whole lot of things. They really are doing yeoman tasks, reaching out to kids who may not seek healthcare in another setting."

The centers - which also operate at high schools in Chelsea, Lynn, Revere, and Salem - provide the same care that is available at a doctor's office or medical clinic. But they are open only to students whose parents sign an enrollment form. A parent or guardian's health insurance pays for the visits, but students who do not have coverage are still treated.

Liability, an issue raised in the Gloucester contraceptives controversy, lies with the healthcare provider, not the school district, Smith said.