
Alicea dialed the hotline number for pregnancy help, but when a cheerful female voice greeted her, she hung up. Again.

Her feelings of misery didn't match up with the happy voice on the other end, and she couldn't bring herself to say the words that would seal the upheaval in her young life: "I'm pregnant and I need help." As she relates the story now, she can smile. In retrospect, it seems like an obvious thing to say.

For weeks, she had tried to act as though her 19-year-old life was unchanged. She went to her job at KFC. She sometimes went to class at Northern Virginia Community College, but the downward spiral of her grades was another reminder. She had to face up to her pregnancy soon.

