95% of Americans have had ...

... premarital sex. According to a study just released, 38,000 men and women were interviewed from 1982, 1988, 1995, and 2002. Commenting on the study, researchers explain that even in past generations, men and women were having sex before marriage. The study's author, Lawrence Finer said,

"The data clearly show that the majority of older teens and adults have already had sex before marriage, which calls into question the federal government's funding of abstinence-only until-marriage programs for 12- to 29-year-olds."

Under the Bush administration, such programs have received hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding. "It would be more effective," Finer said, "to provide young people with the skills and information they need to be safe once they become sexually active -- which nearly everyone eventually will."

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You've read my rants about the ineffectiveness of abstinence-only education and funding especially as this relates to HIV/AIDS awareness. If kids are going to have sex, and we can certainly encourage them not to, if they are going to do it anyway, we need to pull our heads out of the sand and stop pretending that abstinence-only education is the only appropriate model to combat the spread of HIV and other STDs.

And now we know that even heterosexuals are having as much sex as they think gay people are having. Let's stop pretending already, offer two viable solutions, and hopefully such a measure will slow the spread of HIV before it kills off half the planet's population. To do otherwise (esp given the recent statistics that show people don't a) adhere to any faith-based abstinence program, b) adhere to non faith-based abstinence programs, or c) continue to have lots and lots and lots of premarital sex) is more than irresponsible, it borders on manslaughter.

Go here to read about the study.