EVERYBODY'S DOING IT

Social conservatives have tried for years to eradicate frank sex education in public schools by pushing abstinence-only programs, despite evidence that such programs don't work.

"Just say no" isn't for kids anymore. The Bush Administration wants to extend the effort to include unmarried adults up to age 29.

Even someone with no sense should know it's a waste of time and money. Premarital sex happens. As the Associated Press reports:

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."

The Guttmacher Institute study involved interviews with 38,000 people, including 33,000 women. The interviews span two decadess, from 1982-2002. From AP:

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.

Making a cameo appearance as a caricature in the AP story is Janice Crouse of Concerned Women for America, a clan of tight-lipped social conservatives. Crouse isn't sure the study is valid: "Any time I see numbers that high, I'm a little suspicious. The numbers are too pat."