Way to state the obvious: CNN on premarital sex.

[Crube]

In a nutshell, CNN basically wrote an article about shit most people already knew. Oh gee, people have premarital sex. Nevermind the fact that it's genetically programmed into our most primordial instincts to fuck and reproduce as much as possible.

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http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/12/19/prema...x.ap/index.html

NEW YORK (AP) -- More than nine out of 10 Americans, men and women alike, have had premarital sex, according to a new study. The high rates extend even to women born in the 1940s, challenging perceptions that people were more chaste in the past.

"This is reality-check research," said the study's author, Lawrence Finer. "Premarital sex is normal behavior for the vast majority of Americans, and has been for decades."

Finer is a research director at the Guttmacher Institute, a private New York-based think tank that studies sexual and reproductive issues and which disagrees with government-funded programs that rely primarily on abstinence-only teachings. The study, released Tuesday, appears in the new issue of Public Health Reports.

The study, examining how sexual behavior before marriage has changed over time, was based on interviews conducted with more than 38,000 people -- about 33,000 of them women -- in 1982, 1988, 1995 and 2002 for the federal National Survey of Family Growth. According to Finer's analysis, 99 percent of the respondents had had sex by age 44, and 95 percent had done so before marriage.

Even among a subgroup of those who abstained from sex until at least age 20, four-fifths had had premarital sex by age 44, the study found.

Finer said the likelihood of Americans having sex before marriage has remained stable since the 1950s, though people now wait longer to get married and thus are sexually active as singles for extensive periods.

The study found women virtually as likely as men to engage in premarital sex, even those born decades ago. Among women born between 1950 and 1978, at least 91 percent had had premarital sex by age 30, he said, while among those born in the 1940s, 88 percent had done so by age 44.

"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," Finer said.

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."

Wade Horn, assistant secretary for children and families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, defended the abstinence-only approach for teenagers.

"One of its values is to help young people delay the onset of sexual activity," he said. "The longer one delays, the fewer lifetime sex partners they have, and the less the risk of contracting sexually transmitted disease."

He insisted there was no federal mission against premarital sex among adults.

"Absolutely not," Horn said. "The Bush administration does not believe the government should be regulating or stigmatizing the behavior of adults." (Unless you're gay of course!)

Horn said he found the high percentages of premarital sex cited in the study to be plausible, and expressed hope that society would not look askance at the small minority that chooses to remain abstinent before marriage.

However, Janice Crouse of Concerned Women for America, a conservative group which strongly supports abstinence-only education, said she was skeptical of the findings.

"Any time I see numbers that high, I'm a little suspicious," she said. "The numbers are too pat."

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[Samurai Drifter]

"One of its values is to help young people delay the onset of sexual activity," he said. "The longer one delays, the fewer lifetime sex partners they have, and the less the risk of contracting sexually transmitted disease."

Well, statistically speaking, they have a point- once you're married you generally only have sex with one person, and the more people you have sex with the more likely you are to contract an STD.

But really, it's none of the governments business and abstinence only education should be abolished.

[margot]

Well..this is actually a good thing. The article seems to hint that since this proves that most everyone has premaritial sex, schools will be forced to shift to less-abstinence centered sex education.

[Ceraziefish]

However, Janice Crouse of Concerned Women for America, a conservative group which strongly supports abstinence-only education, said she was skeptical of the findings.

"Any time I see numbers that high, I'm a little suspicious," she said. "The numbers are too pat."

IS SHE LIVING IN A FANTASY WORLD?

@ m4x0r... If you use condoms and birth control, sex is totally safe. Seriously. There's actually no reason to not tell kids to do whatever they want (within reason).

[Samurai Drifter]

Wow, you're saying schools should tell kids it's ok to go have sex with whoever they want, whenever they want?

Maybe you should go teach them the proper way to have sex in a subway?

sorry, but going around having sex with everything just because you think it's cool doesn't neccesarily

mean we should teach people to do it. Premarital sex is fine but having sex with everyone and everything is not.

maybe we should teach kids rape is ok? and different sexual fetishes? that sounds like a fucking great idea.

No, just that schools and the government have no right to tell people that they shouldn't have sex before marriage, since it's none of their business. No one's saying "whoever they want, whenever they want."

(Well, whoever would be fine, with the exceptions of pedophiles and that sort of thing).

[Poophy]

Premarital sex is fine but having sex with everyone and everything is not.

What type of things do you have in mind?

[margot]

Wow, you're saying schools should tell kids it's ok to go have sex with whoever they want, whenever they want?

Maybe you should go teach them the proper way to have sex in a subway?

sorry, but going around having sex with everything just because you think it's cool doesn't neccesarily

mean we should teach people to do it. Premarital sex is fine but having sex with everyone and everything is not.

maybe we should teach kids rape is ok? and different sexual fetishes? that sounds like a fucking great idea.

Schools that don't preach abstinence teach kids how to use condoms, about birth control pills ect. There's nothing that encourages them to have sex.

Please do not equate information about safe sex with rape.

[The Lone Magician]

This is just like school. Now CNN is telling me things I already knew.

[Wind]

Wow, you're saying schools should tell kids it's ok to go have sex with whoever they want, whenever they want?

Maybe you should go teach them the proper way to have sex in a subway?

sorry, but going around having sex with everything just because you think it's cool doesn't neccesarily

mean we should teach people to do it. Premarital sex is fine but having sex with everyone and everything is not.

maybe we should teach kids rape is ok? and different sexual fetishes? that sounds like a fucking great idea.

Who said anything about school teaching kids to have sex with people randomly?

The fact is just about EVERYONE IS GOING TO HAVE SEX BEFORE THEY GET MARRIED, and a large percentage of this will occur in highschool and college years, so with this fact in mind teachers should just tell kids the proper way to use condoms, birth control, etc because its not like if they told us to stop fucking that we'd listen.

also, ricky turn off christian mode for a few minutes.

[Crube]

Who said anything about school teaching kids to have sex with people randomly?

The fact is just about EVERYONE IS GOING TO HAVE SEX BEFORE THEY GET MARRIED, and a large percentage of this will occur in highschool and college years, so with this fact in mind teachers should just tell kids the proper way to use condoms, birth control, etc because its not like if they told us to stop fucking that we'd listen.

also, ricky turn off christian mode for a few minutes.

Really though, schools are better off if they just get rid of this abstinence thing they are trying to teach.

[margot]

When I was taught abstinence they basically just told us that it's the only effective form of birth control and then taught us about how hard it is to be a teenage parent ect.

[Samurai Drifter]

Maybe irrelevant, but how does one "teach" abstinence, I'm pretty sure most teenage males are forced to be abstinent.

A guy came in to my health class and gave an hour long lecture on why you shouldn't have sex before marriage, and how it's the only completely effective contraceptive.

[The Lone Magician]

A guy came in to my health class and gave an hour long lecture on why you shouldn't have sex before marriage, and how it's the only completely effective contraceptive.

Same here, too bad he was lying. They could also cut your balls off.

[Ceraziefish]

Hm.

Is that how they do it in all schools in the states?

No. I learned the whole kit and caboodle, like Burb said, from my school.

There was also a thing at my church (super progressive not even really religious church, mind you) about emotional health in relationships. I'm not sure how worthwhile that was, though, that's sort of the thing you have to learn for yourself.

[Poophy]

CNN should do a study on post marital sex…

Bet the numbers aren’t nearly as high! *noise that signifies punch line*

O ya… I can soooo do network TV!