Teen Pregnancy

We would like to commend The Times for focusing attention on the very serious problem of teen-age pregnancy with its series, "The Teen Birth Explosion" (March 14-16). The series was accurate in depicting the underlying causes of the escalating teen birth rate and the sense of hopelessness that many teens experience. As Laurie Becklund showed so clearly, many of these young men and women are trying to create hope for themselves by creating children. We were, however, disturbed by the fact that Becklund seems to have some misunderstanding about who we are and what we do. The Los Angeles Regional Family Planning Council (LARFPC)

A national project to learn more about teen pregnancy and develop effective services for pregnant teens is being adapted locally by the Junior League of Los Angeles. According to the league, the most recent figures show that in 1982, 13% of all births in Los Angeles County were to mothers 19 and younger, a higher teen birthrate than that of the rest of California or the country.

The school board has denied a request by a high school teacher to discuss teen pregnancy in her human relations class, saying such talk belongs in a health class where abstinence is the key message. The board voted 4 to 3 against a proposed round-table discussion of pregnancy, birth control and abortion in Sharon Froba's class at Modesto High School. Froba hoped to invite speakers from Planned Parenthood, Teen Life Challenge and Modesto Junior College's Students for Life club.

A series of free classes aimed at reducing teen pregnancy and its accompanying problems is scheduled to begin next month in Montebello Unified School District schools. Project organizers, including several community-based groups, are inviting children as young as 9 to participate with their parents and grandparents in courses ranging from sex refusal skills to techniques for relaxing tensions in the home.

Ventura County health officials are seeking a $175,000 grant to help combat teen pregnancy in Oxnard, which accounted for 50% of the 1,264 teen births in the county in 1995. The county Department of Health hopes to secure the grant from the California Wellness Foundation to develop teen outreach programs with other community organizations, officials said.

Teen pregnancy in Ventura County last year saw its steepest decline in a decade, a downturn attributed to a stronger focus on the role of fathers, increased use of condoms in the age of AIDS and a variety of prevention programs underway across the county. New state figures released by the state Health and Welfare Agency show there were 1,159 births to teen mothers between 15 and 19 years of age in Ventura County in 1996. That compares with 1,247 the previous year.

Four programs that deal with teen pregnancy were presented with grants by the Ventura County Community Foundation's Women's Legacy Fund this week. The recipients are: * Apollo Continuation High School in Simi Valley, $7,020 for its Minor Parent program, which focuses on providing teen parents child care and support to complete their high school education and/or learn job skills.

Given America's increasing obsession with teenage pregnancy over the last three decades, it's inevitable that sensational stories such as Gloucester High School's mythical pregnancy pact would generate a media frenzy. Ignited by Time magazine's June 18 feature, the story exploded in the national and international media, growing wilder and wilder: Girls 16 and younger who lived in upscale Gloucester, Mass., conspired to get pregnant.

The NBC and CBS television networks have agreed to cooperate with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in the airing of a public-service announcement aimed at reducing teen-age pregnancies, it was announced Wednesday. Dr. Luella Klein, a spokesman for the college, said the spot announcement, first offered to the networks but rejected July 31, had been modified to eliminate the word contraceptives, which network officials found objectionable.