Deukmejian’s Proposed Budget

I applaud your advice to save California’s family-planning programs (editorial, “Save Family Planning,” Jan. 14). How can it possibly make good sense financially or otherwise to cut pregnancy prevention services available to poor teen-age girls?

Youngsters under 18 are far more likely than older pregnant women to develop complications during pregnancy and deliver premature infants. All of these costs must be born by the state through Medi-Cal. Imagine how that translates into dollars when one in eight teen-age girls gave birth last year in Los Angeles County alone. That is 45,000, and 23% of those are having their second child. Since 50% of welfare mothers under 30 were teen mothers, think of what that means in welfare costs. And dollars are not the only commodity at stake here. What about the toll in human suffering--opportunity snuffed out, young lives ruined, battered babies!

SHARON GOLDSMITH

Los Angeles