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THE FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS—WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10,1M0
Teenage Pregnancies II
There Are Several Options To Choose From In Handling The Situation]
By LANE GARDNER
When an unmarried teen
age girl in Forsyth County
becomes pregnant, there are
a number of possible ways
she may handle the situa
tion. The decision she ulti
mately makes for herself
and her yet unborn child is
affected by personal feel
ings, familial sentiments
and pressures from society.
An unmarried pregnant
girl begins by expressing
her condition to some
trusted individual. That per
son she feels comfortable
with may be a family mem
ber, but more often than not,
it’s a person involved with
From the Front
In 1977, Bell made a traffic study of
calls from Cumming at the direction of
the PSC, Burge said. The original study
counted calls only from Cumming to
downtown Atlanta. After Mrs. Palmer
challenged the study because of this,
Bell included surrounding areas like
Marietta and Buford, Burge said.
The results still held Cumming sim
ply did not call Atlanta enough to make
metro service worth while, Burge con
tended. The study found in an average
month, 52 percent of the Cumming sub
scribers made no calls to the downtown
Atlanta exchange. Some 98 percent of
the subs subscribers made less than 25
calls to Atlanta, Burge said.
Bell used a “community interest fac
tor” to measure the number of calls
per subscriber per month when it took
other areas into the metro dialing sys
tem in the 19605. At no time has Cum
ming placed high enough on this scale
to justify metro service, Burge said.
Installing metro phones in Cumming
would be very expensive Burge added.
The existing long-distance network
could not be used and there is no simple
switch to throw, he explained. The
phone company would have to spend
lots of money to install new switching
equipment and new cable to Cumming
to handle the metro traffic.
Bell has made compromise proposals
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some public institution or
agency.
Most girls in Forsyth
County seek out advice and
counseling from the Forsyth
County Health Department
or the Forsyth County De
partment of Family and
Children Services (DFCS).
These organizations work
closely with one another.
In some instances, the un
married teenager may go to
someone at her school tea
cher or counselor. Johnie
Day, head counselor at For
syth County High School,
says girls occassionally
come to him or his staff for
advice.
Metro Phone
for providing Atlanta phones for those
who need it, Burge said. But Bell still
remains opposed to a general extension
of metro' service to Cumming, Burge
reiterated.
Bob Evans, a PSC engineer who han
dles Cumming’s case, said Bell did a
study of the costs of providing metro
service to Cumming at the PSC’s re
quest several years ago. When the
Metro Atlanta Telephone Group ques
tioned the figures, the PSC hired an
outside contractor, Evans said. Whose
figures substantiated the original one.
It found $2,258,000 would be necessary
to install metro phone service in Cum
ming. This would work out to a monthly
cost of $20.48 beyond the basic monthly
phone bill for each subscriber’ Evans
said.
Before the PSC ordered Bell to go
ahead with metro service, a survey of
subscrobers would have to show a ma
jority of them favored it, Evans said.
County Commission Chairman Bill
Barnett accompanied Mrs. Palmer to
the PSC meeting last week. “I’d love to
see us get it (metro phone service) as
long as we don’t have to pay anymore'
costs than we are now,” he said. “Our
citizens need it, as long as it is a rea
sonable cost.”
Bell is opposed to providing metro
service because it would cost them
money, Barnett said. Other areas in the
Day says the girls are
mostly afraid to tell their
parents. What he tries to do
is “get everything out in the
open.” He encourages them
to talk to their parents and
refers them to the county
health department.
Who a pregnant girl sees
determines the number of
alternatives she has. All to
tal, though, a girl may
choose to 1) keep her baby
and marry, 2) keep her baby
and not marry, 3) abort, 4)
give the baby up for adop
tion.
Ms. Jerrie Gober of the
Department of Family and
Children Services says the
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largest percentage of girls
she sees keep their babies
and don’t marry. The small
est percentage decide to put
their babies up for adoption.
Of all the girls DFCS sees,
Ms. Gober estimates that at
least 10 per year are given
abortion referrals, four per
year choose to enter the
Florence Crittenton Home in
Atlanta, which serves unwed
mothers, and three per year
decide to give their babies
up for adoption.
When a girl requests abor
tion information, DFCS only
gives referrals. The names
of clinics and prices are
made available. Ms. Gober
stresses that DFCS does not
state want to join the metro system or
expand their local dialing area. If the
phone company loses here, it would set
an unfavorable precedent, he ex
plained.
Forsyth County is like a penensula
hanging down into the metro dialing
area, Barnett said. Gwinnett County to
the east is in the metro area, and so is a
part of Cherokee County to the west.
Only the lower third of Forsyth County
is in the metro dialing area now.
Like Mrs. Palmer, County Commis
sioner Harrison Tallant is disatisfied
with milage on telephone bills.
He went to the PSC meeting Sept. 4
with her.
“We’re already paying the rates (of
the metro system), but were not get
ting the service,” he said. Some sub
scribers to the Cumming exchange pay
around sl2 a month, or about what At
lantans pay, he explained. He and Bar
nett agreed the Cumming exchange is
one of the smallest in the state, only
five to seven miles wide.
Tallant said the Metro Atlanta Tele
phone Group had discussed a compro
mise plan with the PSC. The group
suggested the PSC consider a system
used in Houston, Texas. Phone sub
scribers there have the option of choos
ing to phone out of their immediate
area for a standard fee of $7 a month,
or both phone out and receive calls for
sl4.
pay for abortions; it
helps make appoint
usually, when a girl seeks
out an abortion, she ends up
going toward metro-Atlanta.
The Northside Family Plan
ning Clinic in Atlanta is fre
quently used.
Those unmarried girls
who choose to enter the Flor
ence Crittenton Home will
have their baby and then ei
ther keep it or give it up for
adoption. A girl applies for
state maternity aid before
entering the home for the
last two months of her preg
nancy.
State maternity aid covers
medical bills and room and
board, according to Ms.
Gober. If a girl is able to pay
anything, she does.
DFCS also handles about
three infant placements per
year. When a girl decides to
take this route, a legal re
lease is executed with the
girl having 10 days to change
her mind.
After 10 days the release
can be finalized. The child
will stay in a foster home un
til a permanent home is
found.
Ms. Gober emphasizes
that all prospective parents
are thoroughly studied. “It’s
a very strict screening proc
ess,” she says. Children are
usually always placed in
north Georgia, but never
within Forsyth County.
Those girls who choose
neither to abort or adopt are
faced with the birth and fu
ture care of a new life. Some
will marry, though most do
not, according to various re
ports.
How young mothers han
dle their situation is as var
ied as the mothers
themselves. Some prove
very capable while others
may neglect their child.
Some leave the baby in
“grandmother’s” care.
Ms. Gober says DFCS will
eventually see about half of
the babies of young unmar
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ried mothers it assists.
There are instances,
though, where the birth of a
child has actually been a
blessing to a young mother.
Such an experience can ma
ture a girl very fast, accord
ing to one unofficial
counselor of young, unmar
ried pregnant girls.
THE RACE IS ON!
The Post No. 5 County
Commission Race is not over.
The Republican party is challenging Democrats
at all levels of government, local and federal to
step forward and defend their liberal policies of
high spending, high taxation and rampant infla
tion which has been its policy for the last twenty
five years.
Jim Weatherby, in his campaign for the county
commission seat in Post No. 5 challenges the
Democrat candidate, David Gilbert, to meet in
public debate.
The date, time and place will be announced in
this newspaper. If Mr. Gilbert will accept the chal
lenge.
JIM WEATHERBY
for County Commission
VOTE REPUBLICAN - FOR A CHANGE
Paid for by the Committee To Elect Jim Weatherby
The “handful” of 16-year
olds that Sister JoAnn G
eary, nurse practitioner and
clinic director of the George
Wilson Clinic, has seen have
entered their situation “very
scared and very immature.”
Eventually, though, they
have “really blossomed,”
she says.
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One anonymous persdn
noted that most pregnaht
teenagers deal with their sit
uation “pretty
“None fall apart,” she says.
And where most say they
wish they’d done things dif
ferently, “none seem to &-
sent their child,” an
encouraging note.