Recession Darkens Prospects for Teenage-Pregnancy Prevention Centers

Teenage-pregnancy prevention centers face greater economic pressure as government and private money shrinks, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Reduced state funds and diminishing private donations are depleting the organizations’ coffers at a time when births by adolescent mothers are rising again after a 14-year decline.

Federal aid could soon help the organizations. President Obama has suggested that he plans to end the Bush administration policy of allocating federal funds only for programs that advocate abstinence to prevent teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

“I’ve never seen such a juxtaposition of opportunity and pain,” said Marcia Egbert, of the George Gund Foundation, in Cleveland, who chairs a public-private coalition that operates a sex-education program in the city’s schools.