WASHINGTON -- The teen pregnancy rate hit a record low throughout the nation in 1997, a trend mirrored in the Northern San Joaquin Valley.

About 9.4 percent of girls ages 15 to 19 became pregnant in 1997, for a total of 872,000 pregnancies, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday. Fifty-five percent gave birth, 29 percent had abortions and the rest miscarried.

The pregnancy rate for that age group fell 4.4 percent between 1996 and 1997, the most recent year analyzed by the federal agency, continuing a trend that has marched through the 1990s.

In the Northern San Joaquin Valley, county agencies do not keep teen birth statistics in the same way that the CDC does. But the local numbers point to the same trend: Teen-agers are having babies at a lower rate than ever before.

One expert here credits education in the schools, programs for parents and an increase of after-school activities, such as a new program for teens at the YMCA of Stanislaus County.

"I think we're providing more and more activities for young people," said Samantha Phillips-Bland, director of family planning for Stanislaus County. "That's the best means of prevention."

Throughout the nation, pregnancy rates are significantly higher in low-income communities, and black and Hispanic girls are more than twice as likely to get pregnant as white girls are. Still, the rates are falling among all races.

Most of the teen pregnancies are among 18- and 19-year-olds, although some 6.4 percent of girls ages 15 to 17 were pregnant in 1997. That was down 21 percent from the peak in 1990.

The overall pregnancy rate for teens fell 19 percent in 1997 from its peak in 1991, and was the lowest since 1976, when the government began keeping records. The abortion rate has fallen by nearly a third since 1990, also reaching a record low.

The teen pregnancy rate is derived by combining the number of teens who give birth with estimates for abortion and miscarriage rates. Because data on abortion are difficult to collect, the statistics are several years old by the time they are released.

"We must continue to build on this success, for there is more we can do," said Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, promising to seek more money for abstinence education.

Federal surveys show that during the 1990s, teens were more likely to use birth control and less likely to have sex. In 1995, 51 percent of teen girls said they had had sex, down from 55 percent in 1990; among boys, it dropped from 60 percent to 55 percent between 1988 and 1995.

And the sharp drop in the abortion rate suggests that most of the pregnancies being avoided were unwanted.

But it is much harder to figure out why teens decide against having sex or for using birth control in the first place.

"That is almost wholly up to speculation," said researcher David Landry of the Alan Guttmacher Institute, which focuses on reproductive health issues.

Those who support a greater emphasis on abstinence tend to credit an increase in support for these programs, which saw a massive infusion of government money beginning in 1997.

Those who believe the availability of birth control is key point to new, more reliable methods of contraception.

Other possible reasons: fear of AIDS has made teens more conscious about using condoms, and the strong economy has given them other options for their futures. And much of the decline comes from a sharp drop in second births to teen-agers.

Tuesday's report also included data on pregnancies to all American women.

It found that in 1997, there were about 6.2 million total pregnancies, also a record low, driven largely by the drops among teens. About 21 percent of all pregnancies ended in abortion.

The pregnancy rate declined among women in their 20s but increased slightly for those in their 30s.

Overall, the abortion rate for U.S. women hit a record low, down 19 percent since 1990.

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AT A GLANCE

For the past several years, births to girls ages 15 to 19 have steadily declined in the Northern San Joaquin Valley and throughout the nation.

STANISLAUS COUNTY -- Births dropped from 67.2 per 1,000 in 1996 to 51.8 in 1999, the latest year for which statistics are available.

MERCED COUNTY -- Births dropped from 84.4 per 1,000 in 1996 to 71.7 in 1999.

SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY -- Births dropped from 68.5 per 1,000 in 1996 to 60.1 in 1999.

TUOLUMNE COUNTY -- With the county's small population, the decline in births to teen-agers is better represented in numbers rather than rates per 1,000. In 1996, 63 girls less than age 19 gave birth. In 2000, 41 girls in the same age group gave birth.

Source: California Department of Health Services and Tuolumne County Public Health Department

Reprinted by permission of Modesto Bee.