Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 25, 1993 TAG: 9308020375
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: D2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: J. TYLER PUGH
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
If, however, we are going to make Elders responsible, then we should consider more than such isolated data. Thomas also should have reported that, according to the CDC, from 1986 (the year before Elders assumed office in Arkansas) through 1992, the total number of cases of gonorrhea decreased by 2,046. Thomas seems to prefer to distort the reader's view with percentages rather than provide useful information.
More importantly, Thomas suggests that Elders is somehow responsible for the increase in the teen-age birthrate in Arkansas. As he points out, Elders likely has been one of the most vocal advocates in this country of reducing teen-age pregnancy by establishing school-based clinics and providing realistic information and counseling for young people who are sexually active. He fails to point out that Arkansas is not the only place experiencing an increase in teen-age pregnancy and births.
The fact is, teen-age birthrates are rising dramatically in many parts of the country, including the Roanoke Valley. According to the Virginia Center for Vital Statistics, Virginia has a pregnancy rate in women ages 10-19 of 45 per 1,000. In Roanoke City, that rate is an incredible 97 per 1,000. The rate has been rising here, and, contrary to Thomas' assertion that the root cause can be pinpointed to any individual, the reasons for the increase are woven deeply into the fabric of society. They include:
The influence of poverty and a culture that increasingly directs responsibility to government rather than accepting individual responsibility for individual actions.
Response to media influence that depicts unrealistic relationships.
The lack of straightforward information about sexuality.
Availability of birth control.
A population that typically lives in the dark ages when it comes to open discussion of sexual matters.
To suggest that a rise in the teen-age birthrate in Arkansas should be laid at the feet of Elders is like suggesting that the volunteers sandbagging the levees in Iowa are somehow responsible for the flooding Mississippi. While this city's teen-pregnancy rate for young women ages 15-19 is 176.5 per 1,000 and is the highest in the state, Roanoke County's numbers are the lowest - just 23.8 pregnancies per 1,000 women. So who would we choose to blame here? In a community as small as ours, clearly individuals and their particular philosophies are not the cause. It is far more likely that cultural, social and economic differences between the urban city and the suburban county account for virtually all the difference.
Elders is a straight-talking, no-nonsense advocate of reducing the incidence of teen-age pregnancy. Her approach is realistic and pragmatic, with one simple goal: to stop children from having children. Unlike many others, like Thomas, who have unspoken agendas, this daughter of a cotton sharecropper, one of eight children who bootstrapped her way through college and medical school, is not given to politics. Thomas, quoting the past president of the Arkansas medical society, states " . . . she polarizes people pretty quickly." He would like to believe that is a criticism, but in this day of slippery politicians who bend and sway with the slightest political wind, Elders is a real breath of fresh air.
We need more, no-nonsense, apolitical public servants who are willing to take a position, and who support that position in the face of opposition. It is unfortunate that those who would oppose Elders focus on why they feel her approach is wrong, rather than suggesting ways that would better solve the very real personal, financial and sociological tragedy of unplanned, unwanted pregnancy.
\ AUTHOR J. Tyler Pugh is a stockbroker with a local firm in Roanoke.
by CNB