Governor Ends Teen Pregnancy Program

The idea made sense but in practice it just didn’t work, Gov. Pete Wilson said Wednesday in announcing he was scuttling one of his own programs--a campaign to discourage teen pregnancy.

Rather than simply talking youngsters out of engaging in sexual activity--which was at the core of the program--the governor said: “I have concluded that we need a much more comprehensive strategy to deal with out-of-wedlock pregnancy.”

Wilson, described by an aide as disappointed in the failure of the so-called Education Now and Babies Later program, said he intends to “scrap the program and replace it with a new, more comprehensive approach” to the problem.

Wilson said he would address new solutions to the teen pregnancy “epidemic” in his State of the State Address to the Legislature next month. Also seeming to depend largely on persuasion, Wilson’s revamped approach “will emphasize changing societal attitudes and norms,” he said.

Communities will be encouraged to “design their own solutions to the problem, including private sector involvement,” Wilson said in a press release announcing that the 3-year-old program would be terminated.

Lynda Frost, spokeswoman for the Department of Health Services, said it was not known exactly when the program, known by the acronym ENABL and conducted at schools and community centers by professional counselors, will be dropped. She said current contracts with the state end in June.

Wilson was unquestionably disappointed, Frost said, since “he spearheaded the program.”

Frost said the strategy to confront girls and boys with the consequences of premarital pregnancy and how to resist it was embarked upon in the fall of 1992 with encouragement and “all kinds of support” from teens, parents, teachers and health professionals, but that a 17-month study showed the effort was achieving poor results.

The study showed “no statistical difference” in pregnancy rates involving boys and girls who had attended the one-hour ENABL sessions five times a week and a control group of youngsters who had not attended, the department report said.

Records from the Department of Health Services show that 1,572 girls under age 15 gave birth in California in 1992. In 1993, with the ENABL program well underway, 1,687 girls in that age group gave birth. In the 15-19 age group, the number of births hardly changed, going from 68,519 in 1992 to 68,198 the next year.

ENABL services are offered voluntarily at 600 locations by 28 contractors and are intended to teach boys and girls “the assertive skills they need to resist social and peer pressures to become sexually active,” according to a health department report. In the Los Angeles area, contracted counselors are provided by such organizations as Planned Parenthood, El Nido Family Centers and Southern California Youth and Family Center of Inglewood.