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

DATE: TUESDAY, November 28, 1995                   TAG: 9511280068
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TEEN PREGNANCY

MOST EVERYONE agrees that children, 10 to 14 years old, are entirely too young to be having babies or having abortions. That girls this age in Roanoke are indeed having both - and at a rate nearly three times the state average for this age group - ought to disturb us mightily.

But what can the community do?

The temptation is to shake our heads and say nothing - sex and pregnancy are private matters, after all. Or we may readily agree the community ``needs to address'' the issue, but admit we don't know how, and conclude it's a problem best left to experts.

Well, it so happens this is a public as well as private problem. Plus, there aren't many experts, and they don't have the answers anyway.

Twenty-three people are serving on the Roanoke City Manager's Task Force on Teen Pregnancy, and they come to the table from a cross-section of backgrounds - social services, health, the ministry - many of which deal directly with pregnant teens. From experience, and after studying for 18 months the problem as it relates particularly to the city of Roanoke, they have come up with some ideas.

But they are just fellow citizens. They are concerned enough to spend time and energy attempting to "address the issue," but they are not miracle workers. If its report and recommendations are to make a difference, the task force will need this community's help.

Tonight, at 6:30 in the Exhibit Hall of the Roanoke Civic Center, the group is holding a town meeting on Roanoke's unusually high teen-pregnancy rate.

For 15- to 19-year-old females, the city's pregnancy rate is no longer highest in the state, but it's the third highest. That statistical improvement aside, there remains a daunting problem with enormous human costs for the young mothers and their babies, and also enormous socioeconomic costs for the community as a whole.

The task force has not found a magic bullet. There is none to be found.

But many community residents just might have some suggestions the task force hasn't yet considered. Teen-agers in particular may have constructive ideas that should be put on the table. Now is the time to make these known to the task force and, at the very least, to hear out its members' thoughts on the subject and to contribute toward the development of something approaching consensus and an action plan.

In this holiday season, Roanokers are time-pressed. But there's probably no more important place to be tonight than at this town meeting.

by CNB