Teen Pregnancy

As one researcher put it, "we found out that pregnancy has a lot to do with the growing gap between rich and poor." Hogwash. This gap was never more pronounced than in the Great Depression and you didn't see this moral decay then. Could it be that at that time there were more caring and responsible parents, more moral values and no enticing pornographic television? JULIO L. FRANCESCONI Los Angeles

California has the nation's highest rate of teen pregnancy and the highest teen abortion rate, according to a new state-by-state-study released by the New York-based Alan Guttmacher Institute. The report, published in the journal Family Planning Perspectives, said that the national teen pregnancy rate in 1980, the most recent figure available, was 111 per 1,000. In California it was 140 per 1,000.

A statewide teen pregnancy prevention program will be extended to San Fernando Valley junior high schools, officials said Thursday. The program, dubbed Education Now And Babies Later (ENABL), will serve about 5,000 youths at eleven middle schools, teaching seventh-grade students in health classes to postpone sexual involvement until marriage.

The idea made sense but in practice it just didn't work, Gov. Pete Wilson said Wednesday in announcing he was scuttling one of his own programs--a campaign to discourage teen pregnancy. Rather than simply talking youngsters out of engaging in sexual activity--which was at the core of the program--the governor said: "I have concluded that we need a much more comprehensive strategy to deal with out-of-wedlock pregnancy."