BOSTON - As she was entering her junior year, Lisa Spilman was focused on finishing at Gloucester High School. She couldn't wait to go to college. She seemed to be on the path to a bright future.

Everything changed when she discovered she was pregnant.

"There was something much more imminent I had to plan for," Spilman said. "I was fortunate to live in a town that provides services to help young parents finish high school."

Spilman and hundreds of other teen moms assembled at the Statehouse on Thursday to ask for more money for similar programs around the state.

Patricia Quinn, director of public policy at the Massachusetts Alliance on Teenage Pregnancy, said advocates are asking for a total increase of $5.7 million for three programs - the Young Parent GED Program, Teen Parent Child Care and for teen pregnancy prevention.

Last year, $4.3 million was allotted to the general education development program, $14 million for child care and $3 million for pregnancy prevention through different departments.

Over the last seven years, funding for prevention has gone down by $2.5 million.
"Teen pregnancies are high in some areas and prevention is crucial," Rep. Barbara L'Italien, D-Andover, said. "Young mothers often do not finish school and their socioeconomic standards go down."

According to the alliance, the state had a 2005 pregnancy rate of 22 per 1,000 girls between 15 and 19. The corresponding national figure is 40. The latest figures were unavailable.

Though the Massachusetts rate is low compared with the national average, many individual towns and cities have much higher birth rates. Lawrence ranks third in the state with a birth rate of 71.7 per 1,000.

"Ideally, we should have prevented those pregnancies," L'Italien said. "But it's also important to put young mothers on the right track."

One program that helps young mothers get back on track is the Keys to Degrees Program at Endicott College in Beverly. The privately funded program, which Spilman hopes to join if she attends Endicott, where she has been accepted, is considered a model by many.

"There should be more programs in both state schools and colleges that give young mothers a place to stay and a way to see their children while studying," said Donna Desmond, who works for the Connecting Young Moms program at Beverly Hospital.
But it's a very expensive service.

"It costs us $13,500 to provide day care to each infant every year," said Susan Stendahl, chief development officer at the state-funded Gloucester-based Pathways For Children. "The ratio of staff to infants has to be very high and funding is very important."