WILSON KICKS OFF CAMPAIGN AGAINST TEEN-AGE PREGNANCY.

Byline: Dan Smith Scripps-McClatchy Western Service

Gov. Pete Wilson on Thursday launched the state's television and radio advertising campaign against teen-age pregnancy, encouraging children to practice abstinence and adults to become more involved in the lives of children.

With Arco Arena as the backdrop and Kings star Mitch Richmond towering over him, Wilson asked his audience to envision the arena's 17,000 seats filled with babies - four times over.

``Last year, California teens delivered nearly 70,000 babies - enough newborns to fill this arena for four Kings' games,'' Wilson said. The governor also said that he has, as promised, become a mentor to a Sacramento-area boy.

State health officials say babies born to teens are more likely to have low birth weight, have more health problems, drop out of school, become addicted, end up in prison and become teen-age parents themselves. While the number of teen-age births in California has grown dramatically since 1960, the birth rate among teens 15 to 19 has actually fallen by more than 10 percent since 1991, according to the Senate Office of Research.

The ads are part of the state's $52 million Partnership for Responsible Parenting, which includes the media campaign, grants for mentoring programs and community-based teen pregnancy programs and money for extra local prosecutors to handle statutory rape cases.

Scheduled to air statewide through August, the ads are aimed at teen-agers and adults and some are in Spanish. The state is spending $3.2 million to buy television time for the first two months of the campaign. One of the current ads shows a despondent young woman holding a baby in a barren apartment as she learns she is undereducated, unemployable and out of money. A radio ad focuses on a teen-age girl explaining abstinence - ``It means not having sex. It means not giving in.''

Other ads feature sports stars, such as Richmond and Los Angeles Galaxy soccer player Mauricio Cienfuegos. In Richmond's spot, for instance, he recalls the inspiration provided by his mother and pleads for adults to be better role models.

The television and radio spots drew mixed reviews from a group of junior high kids touring the Capitol on Thursday afternoon. In general the five eighth-graders from Monson-Sultana Middle School near Dinuba said they were pleased the state was making an effort.