Who Pays When Kids Have Kids?

December 22, 1985|By E.R. Shipp, New York Times

MILWAUKEE — The state that pioneered the open primary, income taxes and unemployment compensation has now devised a novel approach for addressing teen-age pregnancy. A wide-ranging law adopted unanimously by the state Legislature last month provides for sex education in public schools, grants for programs to counsel teen-agers, abortions without the necessity of parental consent and the establishment of a state adoption center.

But what has caught the attention of most Wisconsin parents and teen-agers is a section known as the ''grandparents liability law.'' Under this law, parents of teen-agers who have babies are now legally obligated to provide financial support for those babies ''so far as the parent is able'' and the teen-ager is not. The obligation would continue until the teen-ager turns 18 years old, marries or joins the military.

This portion of the Abortion Prevention and Family Responsibility Act of 1985 is being hailed and condemned in equal measure, and all before it has actually been implemented in any concrete way.

The objective of the act is to reduce the number of abortions by significantly reducing the number of teen-age pregnancies and, when pregnancies do occur, by offering teen-agers other options.

There is no information on the number of Wisconsin teen-agers who choose abortion. Nationally, however, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization devoted to reproductive-health issues, teen-agers account for about 28 percent of the 1.5 million abortions performed annually. They were second only to women 20 to 24, who accounted for 35 percent of the abortions.

In 1981, the last year for which the institute has complete data, the pregnancy rate among teen-age girls was 111 per 1,000. Of those, 43 per 1,000 had abortions.

In Wisconsin last year 7,736 babies were born to teen-agers, an overwhelming number of whom live in Milwaukee. According to the experts, a teen-age parent is more likely than not to drop out of high school and to become trapped in the cycle of poverty. Nationwide, about 60 percent of all teen-age mothers require public aid.

Under Wisconsin's new grandparents liability law, the determining factor is no longer the teen-age mother's lack of income. Now, the incomes of the child's father and the child's maternal and paternal grandparents would also be taken into consideration. The idea is that parents will try harder to prevent their children from engaging in sexual activity and that teen-agers will be on guard, knowing that their parents could pay for their mistakes. But no one knows what effect this provision could have. While some say, for example, that it should reduce the welfare rolls, others argue that it might unduly penalize the working poor.

Ramona Cordova, for example, is a 17-year-old junior at South Division High School, which has provided classes and services for teen-age parents for several years. She is also the mother of two sons, 10 months and 2 years old. ''Some parents are hardly making it with their income,'' she said. ''How are they going to manage with a grandson or granddaughter when they can hardly make ends meet?''

While some people think the law will reduce sexual activity among teen- agers, others believe it will be a further inducement for abortions.

Barbara L. Lyons, the legislative director of Wisconsin Citizens Concerned for Life, a coalition that opposes abortion, said girls may be pressured into having abortions because their parents ''may see the financial responsibility as being something bigger and more unmanageable than actually it may be.''

For different reasons, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin also finds fault with the law. Its executive director, Doug Jackson, said: ''The issue is, who are you penalizing? Some parents are going to take the position that it's not their mistake, that there's a limit to responsibility and that supporting a minor child's minor child is going over some fine line.''

A number of girls interviewed here said they had been expelled from their homes when they became pregnant. Others said they remained home, but had to bear the wrath not only of their own parents, but also of their boyfriends' parents as well. None of them thought the grandparents liability law would do anything but add to the bad feelings among family members.

Sister Kathryn Keifer, who is executive director of Ebenezer Child Care, a group that operates nurseries at South Division High School and elsewhere, agreed. ''It just strikes me as too much of a punitive measure,'' she said of the law. ''Most parents don't want their teen-agers to become pregnant. What more can they do?''

At Rosalie Manor, a residence and counseling program for young mothers, no one thought the law would curtail teen-age sexuality.

Kiki, an expectant 16-year-old, said, ''Us kids are determined to do what we want, no matter what the parents say.''

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