Teen forum will discuss high pregnancy rate

Lolita Harper

COSTA MESA -- Efforts made to combat teen pregnancy by city officials,

parents, school board members, nonprofit groups and adults of all sorts

are an integral part of the prevention process.

But who better to explore the issue than teens, themselves?

A group of concerned Costa Mesa teens will host a community forum

called “Teens Deal With Teen Pregnancy Issues: Communicate With Them” on

Friday night at the Costa Mesa Senior Center. The teen advocates, who are

members of Speak Out!, part of Camp Fire USA Orange County, are inviting

anyone and everyone to discuss the disturbing number of teen births in

Costa Mesa.

“The forum is to unite Costa Mesa community members who normally

wouldn’t get together to talk about how to prevent teen pregnancies,”

said Priya Runyon, a Speak Out! program coordinator. “The teens want to

present a united front in combating the problem and get a pulse on what

the community thinks about prevention methods.”

The group has invited clergy members, police officers, city officials,

parents, teenagers, grandparents -- virtually anyone in Costa Mesa who

wants to contribute.

High teen pregnancy rates affect more than just the young mothers and

their babies, Runyon said. It affects the quality of life for the entire

city.

Mayor Linda Dixon reached the same conclusion after an earlier forum

on teen pregnancy rates hosted by Planned Parenthood of Orange County and

San Bernardino. Dixon proposed the city offer a venue for teens and

parents to communicate with each other.

Dixon said Tuesday she supported the teens’ effort to bring the

community together and regretted she could not be there because she is

performing in the Children’s Hospital of Orange County Follies show.

“More power to them,” Dixon said. “I’ll be interested to see how it

turns out.”

Kimberly Custer, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of Orange County

and San Bernardino, said representatives from her organization will

participate.

“All of our programs focus on reducing teen pregnancies. That is our

priority,” Custer said. “Costa Mesa has an incredibly high rate of teen

births, and it would make sense that we have a presence there to promote

comprehensive sex education.”

Newport-Mesa Unified School District trustee Wendy Leece was critical

of the forum and views it as an attempt to alter sex education in the

schools.

“I just wonder if the people that are putting on the forum have read

the state law, which, as far as I recall, does dictate how sex education

should be taught in our public schools,” Leece said. “It’s very

definitive, very clear.”

Leece did not confirm whether she would attend.

Studies by the California Department of Health Services identified the

southern region of the city as a teen pregnancy “hot spot.” Research --

which broke down its study areas by ZIP Code -- found 92627 to have more

than twice the number of teen pregnancies than the county average.

The study, which researched pregnancies for young women ages 15 to 19

in 2000, showed the southern region of Costa Mesa had 91 pregnant teen

mothers per 1,000 teenage girls. The average for Orange County is 42; the

state average is 48.1.

The other Costa Mesa ZIP Code area studied was 92626. The study found

that area to have 24 teen pregnancies per 1,000, which is well below the

county and state averages.

FYI

What: Community Forum, “Teens Deal With Teen Pregnancy Issues:

Communicate With Them”

When: 6 to 9 p.m. Friday

Where: Costa Mesa Senior Center, 695 W. 19th St.

Information: (714) 838-9991