For teens - abstinence-only sex education programs...a waste of money!

It has taken a U.S. government report to confirm what experts in sexual behaviour have repeatedly warned about in recent years regarding teenage sex....abstinence just doesn't work.

Sexual education programs which advocate teaching children to avoid sex until marriage have been found to be a failure.

Researchers found that teenagers who took part in the programs as elementary and middle school students were just as likely to have sex as those who did not take part in them.

The report by researchers from Mathematica Policy Research Inc. which was requisitioned by Congress, was released by California Democrat Henry Waxman's office and is available online.

Abstinence-only education programs are strongly supported by the administration of President George W. Bush and the report has re-ignited the debate on the government's attitude towards birth control.

The research by Christopher Trenholm and colleagues examined four abstinence programs throughout the U.S.; they interviewed teenagers with an average age of 16 living in rural and urban communities in Florida, Wisconsin, Mississippi and Virginia.

In total 2,057 children were interviewed of which 1,200 of them had taken part in abstinence-only education programs four to six years earlier.

According to the report the average teenager experiences sexual intercourse at 14.9 years and teenagers in both groups were just as likely to use condoms or birth control.

The report does in this respect counter criticism that abstinence-only education leave children ignorant of how to protect themselves from pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases and therefore have more unprotected sex.

It was found that 23 percent of both groups reported having had sex and always using a condom; 17 percent of both groups reported having had sex and only sometimes using a condom; and 4 percent of both groups reported having had sex and never using a condom.

The researchers say that the two groups also did not differ in the number of partners with whom they had sex, and around 25 percent in both groups had already had sex with three or more partners.

Senator Waxman, chairman of the House of Representatives Government Oversight Committee, says the data demonstrates that abstinence-only programs do not protect teenagers health and are a waste of American taxpayers money.

Apparently the federal government spends some $176 million annually on abstinence-only education programs but the report has found that children need more comprehensive education regarding abstinence, contraception and sex in general.

Experts agree and say the vast majority of the public does not see abstinence and contraception as an either/or proposition and want teenagers to be informed of both.

Others say the abstinence-only advocates have been promoting ignorance in an era where AIDS presents a major threat and that represents bad ethics as well as bad public health policy.

The United States has one of the highest rates of unwanted teenage pregnancies in the western world and many believe the $176 million could be better used in sponsoring comprehensive sex education which would include abstinence.

Meanwhile advocates for abstinence-only education, along with the Bush administration, suggest more such education is needed.