A made-for-TV movie called "The Pregnancy Pact," about a group of high school girls who made a pact to get pregnant, will air tomorrow night. Columnist and Garden Variety blogger Susan Reimer watched a preview and brings us this guest post:

In the summer of 2008, "Time" magazine reported that 17 high school girls in a struggling Massachusetts fishing town made a pact to get pregnant, and the news rocked the nation.

The nurse at the high school in Gloucester said she administered more than 100 pregnancy tests and some of the girls, none older than 16, showed disappointment when the test came out negative and others high-fived their friends when the test was positive.

The TV trucks arrived and turned the crisis into a circus.

For the national media, it was an irresistible story line, and it quickly became a "Law & Order" episode, a novel and now, the movie, which will air at 9 p.m. Saturday night on Lifetime.

The movie takes the line that such a pregnancy pact did exist, although that would come into serious doubt after the "Time" magazine story appeared. But that is the only question the movie answers for its viewers.

The why - why did these girls get pregnant at 15 and 16? - is never clear. But the consequences of those pregnancies is on vivid display in the movie, as are the trials of teen parenthood.

"The Pregnancy Pact" is not a public service announcement. The complexity of the characters and the dialogue do not have that hollow sound of a script trying too hard to make a point. And the confused thinking of these teens is real.

The producers had some help with that.

Marisa Nightingale, from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancies, was on hand to bring some resonance to the story of these girls. And some facts to the debate the movie chronicles.

"It isn't two hours of trying to find out was there or was there not a pact," said Nightingale. "It is about how do you get to a point where one girl, let alone, 18, wants to get pregnant as a teen."

Nightingale said she had more access during the production of this movie, which stars Nancy Travis as a conservative mom and Camryn Manheim as the school nurse, than she has had during all of her 13 years of helping television and movie people tell accurate stories about teens and sex.

"They didn't want it to be cartoonish," she said. "They wanted it to be complicated and complex and have different points of view."

There are moments when you can hear the voice of the National Campaign. Video blogger Sidney Bloom, played by Thora Birch, who returns to her old high school to chronicle the epidemic of pregnancies, can sound like she is testifying before Congress sometimes.

But there is a drama arc in the movie and there are secrets that are revealed. If there is a bad guy, it is the media. (Ouch.) The girls who conspire to get pregnant are not sinister. One girl gets pregnant and she is scared enough to want her friends to go along with her. Another is hoping to keep a boyfriend from leaving for college. Another wants something to love her back.

But all their heads are filled with magical thinking about raising their children together, about matching outfits and playdates and home-cooked meals.

And the parents, if stressed by the poor economy of their town, are guilty of what so many of us are guilty of: telling our children to wait for sex without telling them how to wait; telling our children to wait without telling them why - that they have a future that is worth postponing pregnancy for.

The movie is a teachable moment for parents and teens - in a very real sense.

"The abstinence only mom thinks she is really clear about things with her daughter and then her daughter gets pregnant on purpose," said Nightingale. "It shows that you have to do more, talk more. That this is a very complicated issue."

You can learn more about the movie and get resources for talking with teens about pregnancy here.