Three quit teen pregnancy panel
Washington
Three prominent conservatives resigned on Thursday from the Reagan administration's Panel on Teen Pregnancy Prevention, charging that it is doing more to promote teenage sex than prevent it. ``They have substituted their own ideology and course of action ... the wholesale distribution of condoms to teen-agers supported by so-called value-free advice about sexuality,'' said Dr. James Dobson.
The three held a press conference to blast the 18-member panel's majority for ignoring its mandate from Health and Human Services Secretary Otis Bowen to develop a plan to encourage teen-agers to avoid sexual intercourse.
The resigning members are Dr. Dobson, founder of Focus on Family, a Pomona, Calif., group and author of a best-selling book, ``Dare to Discipline''; Dr. Terrance Olson, associate dean at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah; and William Pierce, president of the National Committee for Adoption.
A spokesman for Dr. Bowen said he would have no comment on the resignations, which resembled a widely publicized rift and protest resignations from a presidential commission on AIDS last year.