Citing Poverty Link, Advocates Lobby to Keep Teen Pregnancy Programs
By Helen Woodman For the State House News Service
        Priscilla Seibles was one of hundreds of teen parents who spent Tuesday at the State House telling their stories and lobbying to protect programs that help young mothers and fathers manage their way through tough times.
       The mother of a two-and-a-half year old son, Seibles credits the Springfield YWCA and its Page Plus Young Parenting Program with keeping a roof over her head and that of her young son with whom she became pregnant at 16. “A year and a half ago, I was homeless,” she said. “The program made sure we had a warm place to stay. Now he’s the reason I get up every morning and go to work.”
       Tuesday’s Lobby Day was organized by the Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy. Research provided by the alliance indicates that 74 percent of the teens who gave birth in 2002 used a public source of funds for prenatal and birth care and 40 percent of families requiring state aid were begun by teenagers. After listening to a several speakers, the young people, many with infants in their arms, were instructed to fan out throughout the capitol and tell their stories to legislators in advance of this spring’s budget debate.
       Advocates want to double the line item for a Department of Public Health teen pregnancy prevention program and level fund another that pays nurses to visit newborns and their parents. Gov. Mitt Romney has recommended that the prevention program be level funded at $992,630 and that the current $12 million allocation for the Healthy Family newborn program be halved to $6 million.
       Richard Powers, spokesman for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, said many of the changes in Romney’s budget proposal are designed to bring the state in line with federal welfare guidelines. And he pointed out that Romney has proposed more spending in other related areas. He cited the governor’s request for $8 million more for education and training programs for welfare recipients and an additional $6.4 million for child care services that will give recipients more flexibility and options.
       Legislative supporters and advocates for the added budget dollars were equally concerned about another Romney proposal they worry will force many young parents who are still in high school to leave school and go to work. Romney’s budget eliminates many exemptions from the current law that ends transitional assistance grants after two years, forcing recipients to work.
        “His family values tell him that a young mother should not be going to school but should be going to work,” Sen. Jarrett Barrios (D-Cambridge)
told those gathered in the Great Hall of the State House. “If you’re going
to have to work 20 hours a week, you’re looking at a future that’s far less
certain. I’m angry that a governor who talks about the importance of education as much as he does would think about taking it away from you.” But Powers disputed the contention that Romney would drive any of the young parents out of the classroom and into the workforce. He said 1,000 of the state’s 2,400 teen parents are still in school and they would continue to get assistance as long as they remain there.