GUEST COMMENTARY: A MODERN SOLUTION FOR TEENAGE PREGNANCY

While reading a recent "Opinions" column written by Dan Quayle (USA Today, April 14, 1994), I began to reflect on its general thesis that large sections of America are becoming moral wastelands as a direct result of unwed teenage mothers, a problem Quayle refers to as the "illegitimacy trend," a trend which like a vicious cycle results in poverty, a bloated welfare system, absentee fathers, crime, more illegitimacy, and on and on.

The solutions typically offered to deal with the illegitimacy problem differ according to political ideologies, but most concerned people, whether conservative or liberal, would agree with Dan Quayle that what teenagers most need to learn are "the virtues of chastity, fidelity, self-control and responsibility."

If teenagers actually did learn to practice these "virtues," the "illegitimacy trend" would end, and if that trend ended, so, too, would the other problems related to teenage pregnancies.

But the simple fact is that we as a society have not been able to find the means to inculcate these virtues. Regardless, then, of the best intentions of conservatives and liberals, the hard truth is that the solutions they continue to promote offer little more than band-aids to cure a gaping, festering, and seemingly incurable wound.

What, however, if there actually exists a way of eliminating the "illegitimacy trend" that would apply to all classes and races, that could be implemented immediately, and that would be extremely cost effective?

Before explaining how this could be accomplished, let me first offer a brief lesson in history. Since the beginning of the experiment known as the United States of America, its citizens have responded to serious problems by persuading their elected representatives that certain laws are necessary in order to protect the individual from himself and to ensure the welfare of the society at large. The premise underlying many of these kinds of laws is that before an individual is permitted to make his own choices in certain matters, he/she must possess a certain level of maturity, that level of maturity measured in terms of the individual's age.

For example, not only is every child required by law to have certain kinds of immunization shots, but no one may drive a car before the age of sixteen, or buy a rifle before the age of 18, or vote before the age of 18, or buy intoxicating liquors before the age of 21, or get married before the age of 18 (unless with the consent of the parents, that consent often given because the female is already pregnant).

In other words, throughout our history, the law and the courts have concluded that although normally there should be no abridgement of an individual's rights to privacy and choice, in certain cases the welfare of the society is deemed to outweigh the rights of the individual, and, thus, in such cases the privacy and choices of individuals are abridged.

In light of this reasoning, it seems very odd indeed that although laws have been established which disallow a young female from driving, drinking, voting, buying a weapon, or marrying before a certain prescribed age, there is no effective law in place to disallow a teenage female from becoming pregnant, an event which by almost universal agreement should never happen until a woman has both the maturity and the economic means to handle the responsibility of childbearing.

Thus, while all of us seriously continue to work toward the goal of instilling in young people the values of self-control, responsibility, and commitment, let's admit that at this moment of crisis in our history what is sorely needed is more than a prayer, more than a condom, and more than another political and/or idealistic lecture. What in fact is needed is no less than an immunization against teenage pregnancy.

Toward that end, I suggest that every concerned citizen prevail upon state and national legislators to introduce, champion, and then pass a law that will make it mandatory for all females between certain ages (10 to 20?) to undergo a medical procedure, like Norplant, which would make it virtually impossible for them to become pregnant during those years. If and when a female is married, the procedure will be discontinued; and when a similar drug becomes available for males, they, too, will undergo the procedure. If such a protection against pregnancy was made mandatory, in one fell swoop the now massive and seemingly incurable problems caused by teenage pregnancies -- with all their direct and indirect economic, social, and moral repercussions -- would rapidly disappear.

JOHN C. BIERK

Cape Girardeau

John C. Bierk resides in Cape Girardeau.