
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 19, 1990                   TAG: 9006190385
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

EPIDEMIC OF UNSOUGHT PREGNANCY

KATHRYN Haynie's letter April 24 challenged me to support Planned Parenthood because it purports to help reduce unplanned pregnancies. The truth is that Planned Parenthood's philosophies and programs have resulted in an epidemic of unintended pregnancies, especially among teens.

Their own journals even admit as much. An article from their September/October 1980 Family Planning Perspectives confessed, "More teen-agers are using contraceptives, and using them more consistently, than ever before. Yet the number and rate of premarital pregnancies continue to rise." And although federal spending for family planning programs increased by 306 percent between 1971 and 1981, teen pregnancies increased by 48.3 percent; abortions by 133 percent.

Planned Parenthood's prime agenda is to ensure the continuation of our present abortion on demand tragedy. It is the largest single provider of abortion in the United States. Its advocacy of sexual license has resulted in our current epidemic of 13 million cases of sexually transmitted diseases per year - excluding AIDS - in our country.

I will happily support Planned Parenthood when it stops killing unborn babies and stops endorsing promiscuous sex with a pill or condom as "responsible sexual behavior." Until then, I'll fight it with all my being.

\ MARLA BURT\ DUBLIN

by CNB