Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 3, 1994 TAG: 9405040010
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
After all, the city in 1991 achieved the dubious distinction of having the highest teen-pregnancy rate in Virginia: 176.5 per 1,000 females aged 15 to 19. That was twice as high as the state rate.
Going virtually unnoticed was a glaring statistical contrast.
In the same year, Roanoke County had the lowest teen-pregnancy rate in the state: 23.8 per 1,000 female 15- to 19-year-olds. (The county also had the lowest-in-the-state rate - 13.4 per 1,000 - for all teens, ages 10 to 19.)
The usual demographic factors - income, race, etc. - aren't different enough to explain so stark a contrast between the neighboring localities. So what does?
Bizarre coincidence? That's a copout answer.
Something in the water? But the county has been buying much of its water from the city.
One quick guess might be that county parents, more affluent, are more inclined to encourage and sponsor abortions for unwed daughters. But it wouldn't be a good guess: The rates are for all teen pregnancies, not just those carried to term.
It is possible, of course, that suburban teens are less sexually active than their urban counterparts - possible, but is it likely? It is also possible that county teens are more sexually sophisticated - that is, more likely to use birth-control measures.
Or, perhaps, it is simply more evidence that Roanoke city's social services, including public housing and transportation, serve as a magnet for those in surrounding communities who need the services.
Dr. Donald Stern, Roanoke city's former public-health director, now in Richmond with the Virginia Department of Health, acknowledges that he's only speculating. But just as he's known teen-age girls in impoverished city families who intentionally set out to get pregnant, their seeing a baby as the ticket to get out on their own, so too does he believe the county has such girls.
County teens with such an agenda, he suggests, may be moving to the city to have their babies, hoping they'll qualify for subsidized housing.
There's peril, in short, in assuming Roanoke County's lowest-in-the-state teen-pregnancy rate to be a source of comfort. Speculative, yes, but Dr. Stern's remains the most persuasive guess so far.
In any event, there's no safety in numbers. The future economic and social impact of the current high teen-pregnancy rates will be felt throughout the region, regardless of the jurisdiction in which individual teen pregnancies happen to be counted. As in Roanoke city, so in Roanoke County must there be awareness of teen pregnancy and its socioeconomic fallout, and a commitment to meeting the challenges they raise.
by CNB