Public Favors Birth Control Messages

A new poll indicates that a large majority of Americans--84%--are seriously concerned about the problem of teen-age pregnancy and a majority also support solutions that have been rendered controversial by the opposition of some conservative organizations and politicians.

According to the poll conducted by Louis Harris & Associates for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the American public favors messages about birth control on television (78%), wants sex education in the public schools (85%) and wants laws requiring public schools to establish links with family-planning clinics to provide teen-agers with information about birth control and contraceptives (67%).

The national random sample was taken to include adults of both sexes, all age groups, all regions of the country and different racial groups and educational levels. The perception of the problem crossed all lines. Describing themselves as Catholic, Protestant or “born-again,” as conservative or liberal, black, white or Latino, college-educated or without a high school diploma, aged 25 or 65, with or without children and from the South, West, North or East, given the option of calling teen-age pregnancy a “serious problem” or a “not so serious problem” or “not sure”--80% or more of people in every category agreed that teen-age pregnancy is a serious problem.

Less Division Than Thought

There was less division over solutions to the problem than might be thought among people of different religious and political beliefs. People who described themselves as white “born-again” Christians, who are often identified with conservative groups that oppose sex information in public schools or on television, said overwhelmingly (89%) that teen-age pregnancy is a serious problem, agreed with other groups that parents do not have much control over their teen-age children’s sexual activities and agreed by majorities somewhat less than those of Protestants and Catholics that sex education should be available to teen-agers through television and the schools and that schools should establish links with family planning clinics. People who were self-described political conservatives also expressed these views in similar numbers.

“We are heartened by the level of support we have for the programs we are advocating to solve the teen pregnancy problem,” Planned Parenthood Federation president Faye Wattleton said in the released report of the poll.

The poll revealed that parents depend on schools and the media to inform their children about contraception. While three in four parents polled who had children 6 to 18 in their households said they had talked with their children about sex (the median age of children when parents had a first discussion about sex was 10), only one in three said they included birth control in what they said. In addition, 64% of the adults polled said they thought parents have little or no control over their teen-agers’ sexual activities.

However, even though parents felt strongly that they needed outside help to discuss contraception with their children, the respondents were evenly split on the issue of “squeal laws,” which require family-planning clinics to obtain written consent from parents before giving contraceptives to people under age 18. “Not only is the public split on the issue, we believe that many individual parents also have divided feelings and are torn between the desire to retain some control over their children’s sexual activities, on one hand, and the sobering reality that parents have little control and need help on the other,” the report said.

An Ineffective Job

The poll found that people do not think schools or television are currently doing an effective job in educating teens. While 85% thought sex education should be taught in schools, only 53% thought that it was available in most public schools. People were also critical of the influence of television with majorities believing that it presents an exaggerated picture of people making love and fails to deal with the consequences of sex, which is perhaps why 78% said they thought television should present birth control messages in its programming.

The poll found abortion continues to be a disturbing and divisive issue in American society, although between the hard-core pro-choice and pro-life contingents, there is a large uncommitted group of 49% who see merit in some of the arguments of both sides. Overall, a slight majority, 55%, oppose a constitutional ban on abortion and 50% support the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.

As regards teen-agers, the poll found that people see abortion as less desirable for them than for other women. For example, very large majorities said they thought abortion should be available if a woman’s life would be endangered by the pregnancy (90%), if her health would be endangered (83%) or if the pregnancy is due to rape or incest (82%). But only 56% thought abortion should be available “if the woman is an unmarried teen-age girl whose future life might be seriously affected” and fewer than half favored abortion in cases where the child would be unwanted or if the woman would have to go on welfare if she had the child (a common occurrence with teen mothers).

However, when asked in a different way--whether they supported or opposed a ban on legal abortion, more people--66%--said they opposed a ban on abortion in the case of a pregnant teen-ager.