Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 5, 1991 TAG: 9103050420
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FRANCES STEBBINS CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
At the interfaith Roanoke Valley Ministers Conference, the blame for the high rate was placed on too much or too little information, depending on who was speaking.
About 30 conference members at Second Presbyterian Church were told the goals of a newly activated Better Beginnings coalition. Through the valley's church people, the coalition is trying to find a way to reduce pregnancy in teens.
Janet McDowell, a community educator for Planned Parenthood of Southwest Virginia, and Melissa Hayes-Smith, a staff member of Mental Health Services of the Roanoke Valley, said Better Beginnings has three goals: to increase the number of valley teens who abstain from sex, decrease the sexual activity of both male and female teens and increase the use of contraceptives among sexually active teens.
The churches, through their children's and youth groups, can be valuable in setting sexual abstinence as a goal, McDowell said. How far they choose to go in promoting birth control will depend on their moral positions, Hayes-Smith said.
This became apparent when the Rev. Vernon Truman Jordahl and John Saul objected to the need for more education on teen birth control.
Jordahl, a part-time pastor of Emmanuel Lutheran Church, said he agrees fully with the first two points of Better Beginnings. He objected strongly, however, to the promotion of contraception among teens because national polls have shown that it removes the fear of pregnancy that keeps many teens away from early sexual experience.
Saul, an Episcopal layman who has led anti-abortion protests in Roanoke, asserted that Better Beginnings' manual for action indicates that McDowell's employer, Planned Parenthood, is trying to win over clergy groups to encourage sexual license in youth.
Saul continued to criticize Planned Parenthood after McDowell and Hayes-Smith told Saul that they are seeking prevention of pregnancy in couples who are physically, emotionally and financially unable to cope with a baby.
The Rev. Kirk Ballin, chairman of the program committee, told Saul he was out of order.
by CNB