SCP-2453
Pregnancy Test
Object Class: Esoteric
Connected to: SCP-1088
Activated instance of SCP-2453.
Special Containment Procedures
Recovered SCP-2453 instances are currently stored in a standard containment locker at Site-85. Access to to instances of SCP-2453 in containment requires Level-3 authorization.
Recall notices for "Joyful Smile" brand pregnancy tests consistent with SCP-2453's appearance have been posted to stores carrying instances of SCP-2453. Monitoring software has been installed on these stores' point-of-sale systems; all automated alerts triggered are to be immediately investigated and any discovered instances of SCP-2453 seized for containment.
Foundation agents assigned to SCP-2453 are to routinely investigate stores in areas surrounding their given location for additional manifestations of SCP-2453. Said agents may be sent out for further reconnaissance should the Foundation be made aware of unusual changes in birth rates in cities where home pregnancy tests are readily available and consumed.
Children born as a result of SCP-2453's effects are to be administered a subdermal tracking chip, ideally at 12 months of age. Said children are to be interviewed annually during standard pediatrician checkups, to monitor for any further anomaly. Foundation-affiliated hospital personnel are to carry out these tasks and provide primary medical care at no additional cost to the children's parents, citing health care benefits provided by a Foundation-front philanthropic society.
Experimental testing of SCP-2453 is currently suspended as per Ethics Committee consensus.
Description
SCP-2453 is the collective designation for all instances of an anomalous home pregnancy test, marketed under the brand name “Joyful Smile”.1 Instances of SCP-2453 are visually identical to similar non-anomalous home pregnancy test strips.
SCP-2453's anomalous properties manifest when a human female urinates on the test strip. After a period of three to five minutes, the results window will display a single line (indicating a negative/not pregnant result) or double lines (indicating a positive/pregnant result).
Experimentation has revealed that results provided by SCP-2453 are independent of the female's pregnancy status prior to using the test. Based on records recovered by Foundation investigations, SCP-2453 is believed to either induce2 or terminate3 a pregnancy, with the user's pregnancy status becoming consistent with the result provided by the instance of SCP-2453 used.
In all cases where an existing pregnancy has been terminated by SCP-2453, the resulting biological waste (e.g., blood, amniotic fluid, partially-formed placenta) has been determined to correspond to the mother's genetic makeup, but no fetal tissue has ever been recovered. In the case of a pregnancy that has lasted for approximately 20 weeks or longer, SCP-2453's display window remains blank and the pregnancy proceeds as normal. Strong correlations have been found to exist between chance of pregnancy following SCP-2453 use and certain characteristics possessed by the mother; see Addendum 2453-B for a partial list of speculative criteria pertaining to SCP-2453 results.
The Foundation was first alerted to SCP-2453's existence following an investigation into a series of potentially-anomalous births. Consistent between all affected individuals was the presence of the then previously-unknown "Joyful Smile" brand of home pregnancy test in the household rooms and/or waste receptacles. All unused and unsold instances of SCP-2453 were immediately confiscated for containment.
Routine cross-object investigation has revealed that SCP-2672 shares similar branding with SCP-2453; however, the earliest instances of SCP-2672 predate those of SCP-2453 by approximately 10 years. As with SCP-2672, there was no record of how SCP-2453 instances were delivered to stores or how the product was entered into each store's inventory system. Employees of affected businesses, when interviewed, reported observing no unusual happenings. Those interviewed further reported never noticing any pregnancy products branded differently from the stores' usual stock.
Addendum 2453-B: List of Criteria (Speculative)
The following table was constructed from statistical analysis of all women known to have been affected by SCP-2453. The resulting list of criteria is not necessarily exhaustive as there may be vectors tested by SCP-2453 that were not taken into consideration by Foundation staff; similarly, the likelihood of pregnancy is meant to be a rough approximation of noticeable trends rather than a definitive set of guidelines.
Addendum 2453-C: Follow-Up Investigation" id="">Addendum 2453-A: Partial Subject Log
Personal records compiled by Foundation researchers (following interviews of affected individuals) support the current theory that SCP-2453's primary anomalous effect occurs based on some judgment of the mother's parental fitness. Below is a partial log of exemplary case studies of individuals affected by SCP-2453:
Addendum 2453-B: List of Criteria (Speculative)
The following table was constructed from statistical analysis of all women known to have been affected by SCP-2453. The resulting list of criteria is not necessarily exhaustive as there may be vectors tested by SCP-2453 that were not taken into consideration by Foundation staff; similarly, the likelihood of pregnancy is meant to be a rough approximation of noticeable trends rather than a definitive set of guidelines.
Addendum 2453-C: Follow-Up Investigation
SCP-2453 originally came to Foundation attention due to the fact that a small percentage of its affected users gave birth to children who possessed physical characteristics that differed from those of both parents. Subsequent genetic testing revealed that in these cases the child's genetic makeup was not consistent with that of their apparent biological parents; in multiple instances, the child was born with a pair of recessive alleles despite one or both parents being homozygous for the dominant trait.
In an effort to better document this anomaly, Foundation geneticists created a database recording the sequences of all children known to have been produced by SCP-2453. When compared to their supposed parents, the genetic disparity was found to be far more widespread than previously believed: thus far, every child in the database has been noted to possess a genetic makeup inconsistent with that of their parents.4
Comparison to a partial list of Foundation assets returned a near-perfect match with a D-Class subject from the initial SCP-2453 experimental runs. The D-Class individual in question had received a negative result and subsequently underwent a termination of pregnancy following the use of SCP-2453. A nine-year time difference was noted between this SCP-2453 test date and the birth of the corresponding child.
A more rigorous followup search revealed that 98% of the children in the database had a genetic makeup consistent with an SCP-2453 user who received a negative result. Furthermore, of the recorded SCP-2453-assisted births, all children born possessed no congenital disorders5 and were noted to be exceptionally healthy during early infancy.