GLOUCESTER, Mass. -- A skyrocketing teen pregnancy rate and a local hospital's reluctance to provide contraceptives to Gloucester High School students has prompted the resignation of two of the school's health officials.

Medical Director Dr. Brian Orr and chief nurse practitioner Kim Daly support giving contraceptives to students, but the reluctance of the town's Addison Gilbert Hospital to distribute birth control drove them to quit, they said.

Gloucester contraceptives

There were 17 pregnancies at the high school this year, when typically there are about four. That spurred clinic director Orr and nurse Daly to move to confidentially give out condoms and birth control pills.

But the hospital, which administers the state public health grant that funds the school clinic, said it was concerned about distributing the pills because of worries over liabilities if students became ill taking the pills.

When Daly and Orr learned they couldn't give out contraceptives without parental consent, they quit.

"The hospital's decision was just actually outrageous and incredible. Birth control pills are not the only answer. We all emphasize that. However, any other program where it's just condom distribution or abstinence-only programs, all those programs do not show the same effects as the comprehensive program that we wanted to copy," Orr said.

Hospital officials said the school committee and Gloucester residents should be allowed to weigh in on the decision.