"Don't have sex"

There's been a bit in the news lately about abstinance-only sex-ed programs. It's becoming more and more apparent that they don't work. Granted, this is something that pretty much anyone in the target age group could have told you from the start ("You, there, 16-year-old! Is the idea of having sex appealing to you?" "Uh...yes." "Will my telling you not to have sex make you not have sex?" "...No..."), but it's nice to hear that it's finally getting some press. Most of it is based off this report (.pdf).

My problem with the programs (beyond it's a useless waste of money, of course), is twofold. For one, it assumes a moral viewpoint that, while it is the norm in this country, is not universal. Not everyone sees the value of abstaining until marriage (hell, not everyone sees the value of marriage). It's a norm, yes, but the opposite of the norm does not necessarily lead to direct harm. It can, but that's not a given, and I'm sort of uncomfortable with requiring schools to teach things like that.

The second issue is that the federal government's idea of abstinence-only means you can't speak in favor of using contraceptives of any sort, and that's just a thousand types of stupid. If you're in a private Catholic school? It's still stupid, but knock yourselves out. If you're in a public school, then we have a problem, because there is no non-religious way in which you can justify that. It's an indisputable fact that condoms prevent disease and pregnancy. No, they're not perfect, and yes, you can still get sick/pregnant even using them properly. But the chance is drastically reduced, making it a rather common-sense issue.

If we must be puritanical, what's wrong with saying "You probably don't want to have sex until you're married, because there are a lot of risks both physical and emotional that go with it, so maybe it's best to just wait. But, if you can't wait, USE A CONDOM YOU STUPID IDIOTS."

I mean, other than the part where teachers are generally discouraged from calling their students stupid idiots.