We’ve been getting a lot of questions about the difference between “The Gloucester 18″ and the Lifetime movie airing tonight.
Yesterday I sat down with Good Morning Gloucester blogger Joey Ciaramitaro to talk more about it. Check out the interview at Good Morning Gloucester.
If you have any questions about truth vs. fiction inspired by the Lifetime movie, leave them in the comments and we’ll be sure to respond!
Tags: good morning gloucester, interviews, lifetime movie, making the movie, Teen Pregnancy, the gloucester 18, the pregnancy pact
[...] “The Gloucester 18″ Vs. Lifetime's “Pregnancy Pact” « Gloucester 18Lifetime’s “Pregnancy Pact”. By: Kristen Grieco. We’ve been getting a lot of question… [...]
[...] “The Gloucester 18″ Vs. Lifetime's “Pregnancy Pact” « Gloucester 18Lifetime’s “Pregnancy Pact”. By: Kristen Grieco. We’ve been getting a lot of questions about the difference between “The Gloucester 18″ and the Lifetime movie airing tonig… [...]
[...] “The Gloucester 18″ vs. Lifetime's “Pregnancy Pact” « Gloucester 18 [...]
I am curious.. does the documentary tell much about what these girls have gone through since having their children? Did any of them have abortions or give their babies up for adoption. I watched the Lifetime movie this evening and it suggested that some of the girls considered adoption.
I’m also curious to know if there is any truth to the drinking and cigarette smoking that supposedly went on while these girls were pregnant.
Hi Laura,
The documentary does talk about what the girls went through since having their children. While it does touch upon the issue of abortion, we mainly focused on the girls who had their children. Due to health privacy laws, we would have had no way of knowing which girls became pregnant but did not carry their babies to term.
Regarding the drinking and smoking: “The Pregnancy Pact” was an extremely fictionalized and, in my opinion, largely inaccurate account of what went on in Gloucester. As far as I understand, pregnant teens smoking and drinking was not an issue in Gloucester. That’s not to say it didn’t happen, but the accounts in “The Pregnancy Pact” were fictional and there’s no correlation between them and the real girls.
That being said, I believe the reason that the producers of the Lifetime movie touched upon those issues is that it is true that in general, teenage girls are less aware of how to take care of themselves during pregnancy than older women, and are less likely to get prenatal care and more likely to have children with health issues.
I hope that’s helpful. I wouldn’t put much stock in the accounts on Lifetime; they were fictionalized.
- Kristen Grieco, Producer, “The Gloucester 18″
I am so grateful to have found the “Gloucester 18″ website prior to the showing of the Pregnancy Pact movie on Lifetime. I have taped the show but have not watched it yet, but it was certainly the talk of the girls in my pregnancy prevention groups yesterday. Several had watched it and were fascinated by the story. I explained the story was sensationalized, as I had gone onto this website Monday to see what you might say about the movie. I was able to dispel so many of the myths created by the Lifetime movie, and I am glad to have done that! I think it definitely helped to bring it back to a level of reality instead of making it this glorified situation that had “really” happened. I am so anxious to see this documentary, and I wish I lived closer to Massachusetts so I could come to the showing on March 4! I applaud all of you for making this a center-stage discussion for all teens and their families. There are kids getting pregnant on purpose (though not through a “pact”) and instead of focusing on whether they all planned it together or not, we should be focusing on WHY teens might be wanting to get pregnant at this age! There are so many things that influence teen pregnancy, and I get so frustrated with people not exploring all of those and simply taking the “easy” conclusion which leaves parents, adults, media, schools, and the teens themselves off the hook. We all need to be responsible for this epidemic in our country and figure out what we can do to stop it. Thank you, Kristen, for recognizing that something was wrong and investigating it. Without you, we would all be believing the sensationalized and highly exaggerated version of the truth!
Erin S., teen pregnancy prevention program coordinator
[...] “The Gloucester 18″ vs. Lifetime's “Pregnancy Pact” « Gloucester 18Lifetime’s “Pregnancy Pact”. By: Kristen Grieco. We’ve been getting a lot of questions about the difference between “The Gloucester 18″ and the Lifetime movie airing tonight. Yesterday I sat down with Good Morning Gloucester blogger … Read more [...]