America's schizoid attitude to sex
• Laws and Politicians, Mostly Bad
An Australian evaluates the Bush administrations' attempt to encourage sexual abstinence.
The US enthusiasm for abstinence-only education is a scary experiment we should not emulate. Early evaluation of the virginity pledge shows it can delay intercourse for up to 18 months. But it is ineffective if more than 30 per cent of a school's population takes the pledge (the kudos of being special evaporates). In other words, if virginity pledges catch on, the ramifications could be disastrous. Those who break the pledge, the evaluation shows, are less likely to use contraceptives.
