Press: Family Plan

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Uncle Sam wants to tell

It is one of the facts of life, albeit a lesser one: the hardest person for a teen-ager to talk to about sex is a parent. Dealing with that reality is difficult enough as it is. But now the Federal Government, and thus the courts, have fallen into this generational communication gap.

Each year more than 600,000 girls under 18 go to federally supported clinics to get contraceptives. Responding to conservative charges that the Government was a silent partner in promoting illicit sex, the Reagan Administration last week formally announced a long-proposed new rule. Starting Feb. 25, clinics receiving federal funds that give birth-control pills or other prescription contraceptives to an unmarried minor must notify the parents within ten working days. Hastening into court, the Planned Parenthood Federation, the American Civil Liberties Union and New York State, among others, contended that this threatened invasion of privacy violates the U.S. Constitution and a 1981 law funding such clinics. A federal judge, perhaps as early as this week, will decide whether to delay imposition of the rule while the issues are argued.

There is no lack of issues, or of partisans. Since it was put forward for public comment eleven months ago, the regulation has sparked 120,000 responses, including objections from agencies of all 38 states that aired their views. Opponents branded it the "squeal rule." The Reagan Administration did not flinch. "We've built a Berlin Wall between the kid and the parents," insisted Secretary of Health and Human Services Richard Schweiker. The new rule, he added, is "a reasonable balance" between the need to offer such services and the need not to undermine the role of parents.

In response, Faye Wattleton, president of Planned Parenthood, notes that 25% of teen-agers surveyed in 1980 said they would stop asking for contraceptives if their parents were informed. Only 2% said they would give up sex. The result, argues Wattleton, will be more teen-age abortions (now an estimated 203,000 annually) and more children born to unmarried teen-agers (131,000 currently). Last April, 32 members of Congress agreed; they contended in a letter that the regulation "would result in a drastic increase in the number of teen-age pregnancies." One signer was Massachusetts Republican Congresswoman Margaret Heckler. After losing her bid for reelection, Heckler was President Reagan's choice to succeed the retiring Schweiker. During her upcoming confirmation hearings, Senators—not to mention parents—will be curious to learn where she stands now.