Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 3 · column 5 of 7 · from the scan, no model involved
►Family
From Page A-l
She said when she visited the schools, she would “go into the emotional consequences of getting that involved and then having a breakup. A lot of times the girls don’t end up marrying the father of the baby, and they think that’s going to happen. It’s not only the girls who are getting stuck. Some of these boys might be stuck for 18 years supporting a child.”
Mrs. Sharp said that the Health Department provides a free confidential family planning clinic. Those who come in can receive condoms, diaphrams and foam or birth control pills. They will also receive instructions on using the birth control methods including such things as how to store condoms, Mrs. Sharp said. She noted that the Norplant device which protects against pregnancy for five years, is not available from the Health Department but can be had privately. She added that it, like all other methods except condoms, does not protect against sexually transmitted diseases.
Mrs. Sharp said clymidia is on the increase in Virginia and in the county, and while she has not seen cases of AIDS among school-aged children, she has seen cases of AIDS symptoms among people in their 20’s who must have contracted the HIV virus while they were in their teens.
“Alcohol use and sex go hand in hand, and HIV is more and more in the heterosexual population.” she added.
Social Services Director Beverly Bowen said her office has not experienced any increased caseload because of teen-age pregnancy, but she has seen an increase in requests for child protective services. These are cases where child abuse or neglect is suspected. She said often when she investigates, she finds that teen-age promiscuity is a factor.
She also has statistics supporting the idea that babies born to teen-age mothers are more likely than others to end up on the welfare rolls. In Virginia as a whole, half the money paid out in Aid to Families with Dependent Children goes to mothers who had their first child as unmarried teenagers, she said. Sixty-four percent of the children who receive such aid were born out of wedlock, she added.
In spite of that, she said she has had young girls tell her they want to have a baby. She feels these often are girls who feel unloved and unappreciated.
She said she did not know of any
87.3%