Onus of preventing teen pregnancy falls on families, groups say

Katherine Simmons of Beaufort said she got pregnant when she was 14 doing things she shouldn't have.

She'll soon be 30 and has four children.

Simmons said being a teen mother was not always easy.She didn't get to go to the movies with her girlfriends. She dropped out of school after eighth grade, but later received her GED.

She insists the fact that teen pregnancy often continues to the next generation will stop with her.

"We know the teen pregnancy cycle repeats itself generation after generation," said Susan Cato, executive director of Beaufort-based Child Abuse Prevention Association. CAPA works to prevent teen pregnancy, which is linked to child abuse.

Teen pregnancy's impacts include:

•Only 1 in 3 teen mothers finish high school

•There were 10,000 new cases of HIV, gonorrhea and chlamydia in people under 20 in South Carolina in 2004 alone

•Teen mothers are more likely to live in poverty

•Boys of teen mothers are more likely to end up in prison

The cost of teen pregnancy extends into the community, Cato said. Teen pregnancy increases the likelihood of sexuallytransmitted infections, children being in foster care and child abuse.

In South Carolina, taxpayers spend $22,000 annually for each baby born to a teen mother for food stamps, housing, foster care, juvenile justice and other associated costs, according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.

In 2003 there were about 300 teen pregnancies in Beaufort County, enough to fill 17 kindergarten classrooms next year.

In 2007, Beaufort County ranked 11th in the state with an estimated 306 pregnancies among 10- to 19-year-olds. Greenville County, which was first in the state, had 709 teen pregnancies. Jasper County was ranked 36th with 56 pregnancies.

Thus, a state of teen pregnancy press conference was held in Beaufort on Thursday, part of a 12-day road show put on by the nonprofit S.C Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy

To stop the cycle in her family, Simmons said she tells her children to come to her with questions and is actively involved in educating them about sex.

"I tell them not to go and find (information) in the streets, that's where you find it out wrong," Simmons said.

She said pregnancy and sex education cannot be sugar-coated.

"You have to let them know how it really is," she said.

The campaign's goal is to make sure that local organizations, parents, schools and teens have the correct information and easily accessible assistance and support.

In South Carolina, 10,000 teenage girls get pregnant each year, said Forrest Alton, executive director ofCharleston-based Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. He was one of the speakers at the Beaufort event.

The Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy has four approaches to reduce that number:

•Get parents to talk with their children about sex

•Do a better job of educating student in schools with age-appropriate information

•Engage the faith community to discuss sex education

•Provide opportunities for young people to positively express themselves

"South Carolina is truly leading the nation when it comes to its efforts to reduce teen pregnancy," he said. "But, we've still got a long way to go."

South Carolina has the 11th highest rate of teen birth rates in the nation.

"The problem won't be solved in Columbia though," Alton said. "The solution comes from communities."