18 Pregnant Schoolgirls

Monday February 23, 2009 at 10 pm ET/PT & Sunday March 1 at 8 pm ET on CBC Newsworld

The story behind the teenage pregnancy scandal that rocked the world.

Gloucester, Massachusetts is seemingly a town divided. On the one side, a conservative, Catholic establishment and on the other, a rebellious, exuberant teenage population brought up on YouTube and Facebook. When an unusually large number of teenage girls turned up for pregnancy tests at a school clinic and were disappointed to find out they were not pregnant, the school began to suspect something was up. Officials announced that they would be investigating an apparent teenage "pregnancy pact" responsible for the fact that at least 17 girls in the high school were expecting babies, four times more than the previous year. It was reported that none of the girls were older than 16 years of age.

Within hours the news had travelled round the world and a media frenzy followed. But was there really a pact? What was really going on in Gloucester? This documentary sets out to find the truth behind the headlines.

Produced by October Films for BBC.