Lack of the knowledge of consequences and a type of "group think."

In time they will see the mistakes they have made, but by then it will be too late. Ask us older folks, we'll tell you how much you should cherish being children yo...

Looking for something; Love, To be needed, a new doll? I bet half of them come from a broken home and the other half are folowers.

Well, human beings natural state is for all the women to get together and raise the kids cooperatively, so its not completely ridiculous. Of course, in nature the way it goes is that the women making the natural arrangement are of all ages: older women who now know how to get old along with the younger women. And that is where you are quite right that this "pregnancy pact" is ridiculous, since it seems the girls in question never bothered to ask older women about the downsides of motherhood. Where it gets even more ridiculous is that apparently the girls in question were woefully unprepared for the realities of pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood, because their local school had no real sex education classes. This was partly due to the heavily Christian city they lived in, where their own parents didn't bother with teaching their own kids about sex. After 17 girls decided to all get pregnant together, the school nurse and doctor asked for quite rational steps to be taken to limit future pregnancy escapades by the students: school programs teaching contraception, real sex education classes, and the like. Despite the fact that the lack thereof had indirectly led to the 17 girls' "pregnancy pact", the Christian town stood up in fierce opposition to contraception and sex education programs. "We're annoyed that our kids did stupid things because they didn't know any better, but we'd like to keep things the way they were when those girls made those mistakes, to make it possible for another 17 or more girls to make the same mistakes later!" one local resident might as well have said. Yes the girls were ridiculous, but this was apparently because the town they lived in was composed entirely of ridiculous people.

Yes. They should go to prison.

Well, it's not the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of, but is does confirm the teenage susceptibility to fad and peer pressure.

Yes, I just saw that on the news today.

This shows the tyranny of peer pressure. Surely some of the seventeen who swore to the pact had doubts, but went along just to be included in the group.

To me it demonstrates the failure of education, the failure of the parents. And, if it is true that this was a seriously-devoted-to- Christian-values town, then also the failure of the church to instill those values in its children is demonstrated. However, although I am not a churchgoer, and am agnostic, I suspect that the accusation regarding Christianity is groundless.

Wow this is ridiculous. Is anyone doing anything to prevent this from actually happening? They should lock them in a room together or something to make sure it doesn't happen. Do they not realize that they will only instill their ignorance to their children in this way? They are not mature enough to be parents yet, you can tell this just because of what they are doing, I don't even need to know them to see this. Where are the parents in this situation? Sitting on the couch not teaching or in the bars not even caring. I HATE lazy parenting!

I hear the sperm donor for most is a 24 year old homeless guy. I would not want his genetics in me. Thanks to Jamie Lynn Spears and Ashlee Simpson for making pregnancy seem "glamorous".

This story makes me sick. These girls have no idea what they've gotten themselves into. They're not going to all be together for the rest of their lives....they will all be going at this alone at some point. They were very selfish in this decision. I feel saddest for these unborn babies. And, it was pure stupidity - hey, let's all get pregnant and what??? ...be miserable together? Moronic!

They need to get in touch with reality. "Raise them together", how, whose money, where? They need to be watched carefully by CPS.

Here is the story..... http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1815845,00.html

Of all the times in my life I wished I was a 24 year old homeless guy, this has to be the tops.

No. The ridiculous thing is that they didn't do this in England, where they would have got a council flat and looked after by the state for life.

probably cause they are all friends and want to be involved in eachothers lives and want that support when they raise a family i made the same pact with my sister but for when we get older, not now idk if you mean immediatly though if you mean like at their ages theyre probably just following the 'leader' of the group

Because they are incredibly, incredibly stupid. And they passed their genes on to kids. Oh god, I'm never going near Massachusets.

I know people are going to hate hearing this but because they are teenagers and have experienced very little in life so far, their reasoning and judgment skills are not well developed. Also, there is a sort of problem going on with these girls. They feel that they are lacking love and that a baby will give them unconditional love. What teenager would pass up unconditional love? What they do not see is the bigger picture (this is the undeveloped judgment here) people who who know each other in high school very rarely keep in touch. These girls were all going to raise their kids together? See what I'm saying? An adult through experience understands that things are not always that simple. Life is not light or dark but often gray. Adults learn this with experience which teenagers do not have. This is not a bad thing. Society needs to understand that teens are not smaller adults but still children and they have the minds of children.

They said it was because they wanted “something to love them unconditionally,” which I think is the biggest tragedy because that means they won’t be placing the children for adoption. I mostly feel sorry for those poor babies. :-(

It sounds like a weird sort of gang or commune type mentality which consists of the basics like belonging to a group and a societal family. Frankly, with the mixed and conflicting messages young girls get it is no wonder that more aren't going off the deep end like this.

Very ignorant and short-sighted of them. Proves they are just still children themselves.

They should have gotten a puppy if they wanted unconditional love!!!

"because they are stupid." or, i guess, they could be uneducated, they could see it as how they grow up - remember watching a video in a sociology class and there was a girl who was so excited that her boyfriend knocked her up, because it meant she'd be moving out of her mom's house. aaaand I know when a cousin of mine eloped, getting married stupidly young, my mother theorised it might be because her parents spent a lot more time with her other sisters-- she wanted more love and went to get it from a stupid place. I mean, they *must* have a seriously borked family life, if their parents did not notice them making plans and then going out and getting knocked up, some of them by a random homeless guy, i think i read.

i think they're not educated enough to know any better and its really sad that they want to do that. i feel bad for their future children. they're too ignorant to become parents and if they do become pregnant i hope they learn how to really be a parent and what its all about.

because they just want some fuckin attention and want to show off how gross they are by even thinking about doing that. The only reason girls should be pregnant at that age is if they are rapped, their religion, or it was an accident. NOT to just do it to do it. Especially sense sex is something that is supposed to be special.

I blame their parents. They must have some pretty good role models to follow after.

I guess I'd better get to Massachusets and get to work.

I think its rather a stupid idea to get pregnant at such a young age, but with all the girls who do get pregnant and give birth who are young they have no one but their mothers. These girls at least have each other, being a group increases hand me downs. Chances of each getting a education in some order, while helping each other learn even when not in school.