Teen Pregnancy Program Ended
* Your Jan. 2 editorial, “No Dent at All in Teens’ Birthrate,” states that “few health educators urge a return to the ignorance of sexuality and reproduction that characterized teenagers in past decades.” I have to ask, “Why not?” We had a very low teen birthrate, we didn’t have pandemic venereal diseases--and we didn’t have Hollywood, TV, Madison Avenue and the news media “teaching” the liberal view of sexual activity.
“Ignorance” of sexuality is not what those teens had. What they had was an awareness, and to various degrees, a belief in moral values and restraints. They were reminded of this by their parents, the community, the school and even supported by the entertainment and news media.
FRANK G. RIVERA
Los Angeles
* There will be pregnant children as long as the public resists classroom education on reproduction. Where are you, Pete Wilson?
MARILYN YANCEY
Fallbrook
* Of course Gov. Wilson’s Education Now and Babies Later (ENABL) program failed (Dec. 28), because it used simplistic solutions to solve complex problems.
I am president of a philanthropic foundation and president of the board of directors of Friends of the Family, a family counseling and educational center in Van Nuys. Five years ago my foundation helped to inaugurate the Young Moms program at Friends of the Family: an intensive, comprehensive program designed to educate and support pregnant teens and teen mothers. Not only has the outcome been superb in terms of high school completion and improved parenting skills, ongoing pregnancies have been negligible, less than 1%, compared with 33% in the nonserved population.
The success rate is due to the long-term presence of the program in the lives of these young women. They participate for 27 months and the approach is holistic, in that the psychological, sociological and economic needs of each member are considered. I believe the key to success has been in the peer support each young mother gives to another. If a replacement for ENABL is to succeed, there needs to be more in-depth support and more time given in order to make a difference.
LYNDA MARTIN
Los Angeles
* Another well-meaning program has failed because the approach, counseling the at-risk group, was totally inappropriate for a large segment of the group. If, as Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray contend in “The Bell Curve,” 52% of the illegitimate births are by mothers who are in the lower two deciles of the cognitive ability range, then a program whose benefits are months and even years away is doomed to fail on at least half of the participants.
We need approaches that have at least a chance to succeed, not those based on fallacious assumptions and wishful thinking. I would suggest taking the children away and eliminating support to mothers on welfare after having an out-of-wedlock child, unless they agree to mandatory, fail-safe contraceptive means such as implants. I would also like to see a national program to garnish at least 20% of any male’s wages for each illegitimate child fathered, until the child is 18.
While these approaches are not a total solution to a national tragedy, these types of programs have a chance of succeeding since they require little cooperation from individuals who, by their actions, have shown that they will not or cannot be responsible.
CHRIS CATSIMANES
Laguna Niguel
