THE PREGNANCY PACT

TV MOVIE:  THE PREGNANCY PACT/Lifetime Original Movie

I looked forward to this “world premiere” because I was really impressed by Thora Birch’s acting in “Homeless to Harvard.”  Well, I was disappointed, not only in Birch, but in the movie overall.  This story was all over the news last year.  Did 18 teenagers make a pact to get pregnant simultaneously?  The school nurse said so, the principal said so, the mayor of Gloucester, Massachusetts proclaimed there was no pact.  An exclusive interview was given to Time magazine by the egotistical principal.  By the time all of this played out, the confused public moved on to another scandal and the residents of Gloucester were embarrassed and angry.

Fast forward to the Lifetime movie.  The disclaimer announced that this was a fictitious account of actual events.  Things were getting very muddy, indeed.  It caused me to go back and check out news items from last year.  The pact, itself, seemed to hold up on scrutiny.  So, what was embroidered was the Sidney Bloom character (Birch.)  A twenty-something blogger on teen issues and former student at the high school depicted, learns of this sensational story and, video cam in hand, she returns to Gloucester, only to confront her own demons.  At 16, she herself, had gotten pregnant and refused her boyfriend’s pleas to get married and have the child.  Right off the bat, she encounters her former boyfriend, now an assistant principal at the high school.  As Birch works the story she is opposed by the school, the school board and angry parents.  She finds that she can only get at the story through some of the students.  She uncovers a pact but is sworn to secrecy.  She betrays the trust.

True to the morality police who govern movies of this ilk, the word “abortion” is never uttered.  Although Birch makes a public stink about making condoms available in the school, there is no frank discussion here about real-life alternatives.  Set in a working-class, mostly Catholic environment, we never really explore why teenaged girls would elect to become pregnant.

Birch, who seems to be an ardent feminist, is hiding something.  We assume she’d had an abortion.  This is not true.

I found no point of view in this tv film, only a snapshot, blurred by the few characters selected.  I think Birch’s character as depicted was unlikable and was a literary device to tell the tale.

Lifetime, you’ve let me down.