Gloucester holds pregnancy forum
GLOUCESTER - Gloucester should take a comprehensive approach to health education, including a discussion of prescription contraceptives, to address a surge in teen pregnancy, public health specialists said last night.
"We need to encourage a model where [teens] take responsibility for making decisions," Dr. Lauren Smith, the medical director of the state Department of Public Health, told officials last night.
Smith was one of three adolescent health specialists who spoke to the School Committee, which is considering whether to allow contraceptives to be prescribed at a health clinic at Gloucester High School.
The meeting was the first of several public forums planned to address the 17 teen pregnancies reported at the high school last academic year. The number was four times the average for the 1,200-student school.
But Smith noted the city's teen birth rate declined from 45.7 per 1,000 residents in 1990 to 21.1 in 2006, almost the same as the state rate of 21.3.
The committee made no decision last night but outlined a series of steps to be taken in the coming months.
Three community meetings will be held, including one for youths to talk about solutions. The Public Conversations Project of Watertown, a nonprofit organization that moderates discussions on public issues, will help lead the sessions, officials said.
A mentoring program for Gloucester teens will be established, and a "working group" appointed to make sure any policy adopted by the School Committee is implemented, officials said.
Another specialist told the committee that birth control pills are an effective form of contraception. "There is a very low [health] risk to birth control, and in adolescents there is an even lower risk," said Dr. Karen Hacker, executive director of the Institute for Community Health in Cambridge.
The teen pregnancy issue has hung over the historic seaport like a thick fog.
In June, Time magazine reported that several of the 17 girls made a pact to get pregnant. The report was later disputed by Mayor Carolyn Kirk, who said there was no evidence to support it.
Kirk said a public dialogue is important. "It's a matter of readiness," she said after the meeting. "We have to know what, as a community, we are ready for."
The city's teen pregnancy controversy started in May, after the doctor and chief nurse at the school's health clinic abruptly resigned. They said they did not believe that Northeast Health Systems of Beverly, which holds the license for the clinic, would allow them to prescribe or distribute contraceptives, citing concern over liability.
Northeast officials dispute that assertion, saying they wanted the School Committee to vote on the matter. The health department has said decisions over contraceptives in schools are made in concert with local school committees.
Kathy McCabe can be reached at kmccabe@globe.com
