Teen pregnancy drop credited to awareness of abstinence benefits

Thursday, March 25, 1999 | 10:30 a.m.

"People know there is a risk with sex," said Jessica Winters, chairwoman of the Governor's Youth Advisory Council. "There could be lifelong maintenance for a moment of pleasure."

Winters, 19, of Las Vegas and other members of the advisory council held a news conference Wednesday to announce that the teen-age pregnancy rate fell 22 percent in Nevada between 1993 and 1998.

Still, 49 of every 1,000 girls ages 15 to 17 became pregnant last year in Nevada. That's the highest rate in the nation, according to Yvonne Sylva, administrator of the state Health Division.

And the pregnancy rate among Hispanic girls is about three times the state average.

But Sylva said the drop below 50 pregnancies per 1,000 lets the state achieve one goal early; her agency had hoped to go below that figure by 2000.

In 1998, 107 babies were born to Nevada girls 10 to 14, 1,747 to ages 15 to 17, and 2,960 to ages 18 to 19.

In the last three years a number of state programs have been launched to reduce the pregnancy rate, including the formation of the Governor's Youth Advisory Council.

The council has been campaigning that abstinence is the best way to avoid pregnancy.