Baker's story focuses on two teens, new mom Alivia, 17, and her non-pregnant friend Kaila, also 17. Alivia has never met her father. Her mother floats in and out of her life. She moved in with an aunt for a while, and that aunt abruptly died from a heroin overdose. Alivia subsequently moved in with another aunt, but when she became pregnant by a Brazilian fisherman, she was happy. "It was the chance to have a family of her own, which is something she always wanted," Baker writes.

Alivia's motivations further bolster the theory I wrote about yesterday, the new "Middle Class Morality," described by the New Yorker's Margaret Talbot. The theory is that many middle class Americans put off sex, not because they think it is morally wrong, but because they have too much to lose to make themselves vulnerable to pregnancy and STDs. The girls in Baker's story don't have anything to lose at all: they're not much into school, and it's difficult for them to see outside the confines of their hometown.

The inclusion of non-pregnant Kaila in Baker's story is an interesting one. Kaila is the outspoken advocate of Alivia and a few other pregnant friends, who told reporters first spilling into Gloucester that teens are getting pregnant because the parents are absent. "Half the parents around here have no clue what's going on with their kids," Kaila said, and she was one of the few interviewees who had anything close to a stable family life. Kaila's mom, Sally, not only is very involved with her daughter's life, but also opens up her house to many of Kaila's pregnant friends. Kaila says that her mom is "obviously doing something right, I'm 17. And no babies!" It might seem to some like a low bar, but studies show that delaying pregnancy even a few years, to age 20, is statistically much better for both mother and child.

Though Kaila seems to have her head on straight, there's one area where she needs a good talking to: she is obsessed with Tyra Banks. Kaila promised her exclusive story to the Tyra show, because she "feels a bond with the diva supermodel host. She knows they can both be goofy and tough and sexy and real." Oh honey, noooooo!!

Growing Up Gloucester [Boston Magazine]

Earlier: Pregnancy Pacts Better Than Suicide Ones, Still Not That Good
Gloucester Teens Deny Existence Of Pregnancy Pact
As Abstinence Pledges Falter, A New Middle-Class Morality Emerges
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And I suppose, from a purely statistical standpoint, Caldwell can make his argument. But being a good parent isn't exclusively about finances. I find it hard to believe that these young women would not make better mothers with a few more years of life experience, added maturity and potential earning power. "Baby-boom feminists did not replace a superstitious attitude towards teen sexuality with a rational one. They replaced one set of priorities with another. Their careerism prevented teen motherhood as reliably as did their mothers’ moralism," Caldwell writes. "The Gloucester girls appear equally unimpressed with both logics. If the old 'pregnancy pact' that went by the name of marriage is no longer so readily available, they are not fools to look for a substitute." Caldwell is making a host of assumptions and relying on many stereotypes of the American lower classes, and both his sweeping generalizations and the fact that he needs to bash second wave feminism to make them are distasteful.

Also distasteful: Brenda Hampton, the creator of The Secret Life of an American Teenager, tells Reuters, "I don't have anything to say about the issue of teen pregnancy…I'm just telling a story about a girl who happens to get pregnant." That's the most patently idiotic thing I've heard all week. Especially since the New York Times review of the show points out that when the heroine of Secret Life discovers that she is pregnant, "Her friends tell her she has options, but abortion is apparently not one of them; that choice is dismissed right away in horrified tones." (Sound familiar?) I think Hampton was missing a word in her quote. She meant to say, "I don't have anything intelligent to say about the issue of teen pregnancy."

The Ideology Of Teen Pregnancy [Financial Times]
TV's "Baby" And "Secret Life" Explore Teen Taboo [Reuters]
A Teenage Pregnancy, Packaged as a Prime-Time Cautionary Tale [NYT]

Earlier: Teen Pregnancy Rates Are Declining — Or Not

The Guardian also interviews Karlee's dad, 17-year-old Michael Mitchell, who is a total piece of work. He was given a Mustang when he graduated from high school earlier this year, but he already crashed it and has a summons for speeding. When asked why so many kids from Gloucester are knocked up, he told the Guardian, "They were horny, it was a cold winter. It's boring around this town. Nothing to do." Also, his plans for the future? "Throwing a party."

For his part, the Gloucester High principal whose comments set off this maelstrom in the first place, Joseph Sullivan, stands by what he said to Time, despite denials from other quarters. He told Time's Kathleen Kingsbury that he found out about the pregnancy pact through "staff reports and student/staff chatter, all of which I have found to be very reliable in my experience as principal." However, due to the controversy, his job may be imperiled, so at this point, he's not going to be doing any more interviews. Sullivan says: "The affected children need to be left alone with their parents and families to deal with the consequences of their actions"

'Pact, What Pact?' Ask Teenage Mothers As The World's Media Come To Town [Guardian]
Gloucester Principal Stands by Story [Time]

Earlier: Time Writer Goes On Today To Discuss Gloucester "Pregnancy Pact"
Time's Nancy Gibbs Thinks "Pregnancy Pact" Teens Are Responsible
Pregnancy Pacts: Better Than Suicide Ones, Still Not That Good

Pregnant Student Denies Pregnancy Pact [AP via MSNBC]

Earlier: Pregnancy Pacts: Better Than Suicide Ones, Still Not That Good
Sex And Consequences