Abstinence-only doesn't work. It doesn't work for sex.

And it doesn't work for other things.

Let me tell you something -- we have gang shootings now in Pasadena, just a block or two from Caltech.

After 34 years of fighting a War on Drugs, the gang problem has only gotten worse. And now even Nobel laureates are in the danger zone.

I am very upset about this and I wonder how can we make sure that we have accountability for these grand moral engineering schemes that the politicians dream up in Washington?

At least here we see a sign of accountability -- absitinence-only sex education is being held accountable for its failures.

I would like to see some accountability for the fact that after 34 years of fighting drugs, now we have powerful wealthy drug gangs fighting turf wars in Pasadena.

If something doesn't work, it doesn't work.

At least when sex education fails, nobody gets shot.

In abstinence only driver's education we'd have cars where the speedometer only goes to 55 (or 65, or whatever). "But if we tell the kids the car will go 75, then they WILL go 75! Horrors!"

How about, if we take 75 off the speedometer, they just won't think of it. Not a single one of them will think of driving too fast. In fact, we'll even have them take a "save driver pledge" that they will never exceed the speed limit, ever.

Abstinence only sex education is about as effective as my hypothetical abstinence only driver's ed.

We wouldn't dream of doing such a thing with driver's ed. We'd all agree it would be too dangerous. Instead, we try to teach kids to be responsible drivers, knowing all the capabilities of a car, and knowing what's allowed where, and why. We give them practical, factual information about how a car works. This education doesn't always work, plenty of kids have accidents. Some of them die. But withholding information won't prevent auto deaths.

Traditional, comprehensive sex ed lets kids know that we think they're smart, we give them the tools they need to make good decisions, that we trust them to begin acting like adults.

It's fun. I know. So I'm not going to argue with you about your attitude towards abstinence only programs which I, too, regard as dumber than dirt. But I will take you to task for this:

If Jamie Lynn intended to have a baby, that's her decision -- and responsibility.

If, in fact, it were just her responsibility, I'd agree with the statement. Unfortunately, the law will also make it her boyfriend's responsibility. At that point, it ceases to be her decision and has to become their decision. This is not to say that preventing pregnancy is just the responsibility of the female because it's not. But the way things are structured now, the female can be as irresponsible as she wants and the male gets tagged with the responsibility and is excluded from the decision making process that follows (such as aborting the pregnancy). That's not right. And to provide the balance, if the male has been being irresponsible and that irresponsibility results in a pregnant female, he's bought and paid for his responsibility.

froggy, I've always liked the driving analogy, so thanks for bringing it up.

We don't just tell people to drive the speed limit and keep their eyes on the road. We offer them better protection than that. We design safer cars. We include seatbelts and airbags. We offer anti-lock brakes and sensors that indicate you're about to back into something (or someone). Because we think people should have more than one line of defense.

That's the problem with abstinence-only "education." It offers only one line of defense. And when lives, fertility and teen pregnancy are on the line, one line of defense isn't enough.

We double-up and triple-up on protection everywhere else in our lives. People try to park their cars in well-lit areas, lock the doors, use The Club and have a car alarm. Yet somehow our kids shouldn't have that level of protection. We give our i-Pods protective sheaths but not our own kids.

As recently as centuries ago, people routinely reproduced in their teens. Our bodies are biologically built to do so. When our reproductive organs mature, our sex drive, naturally, kicks in. In today's world, we've shifted to a culture that expects our children to remain in school longer and delay their independence. But our reproductive biology hasn't changed; if anything, girls are maturing earlier. Instinct can be a more insistent motivator than intellect. I don't condone teen sex, but I accept that for many teens, it's inevitable. Give them the best information possible on avoiding pregnancy, so they can take responsibility for their choices.

We never get any realistic discussion of these issues in the media.

Did Jamie-Lynn get pregant on purpose or accidentally?

Let's assume it was not a planned pregnancy.

Does sex inevitably lead to pregnancy and/or disease? No it does not, provided that people who want to have sex and avoid pregnancy and disease are educated about how this is done and have ready access to contraception.

I know the condom lobby won't like this, but I am a sexually active person and I can tell you that condoms are OK the first time you have sex with a partner, and maybe the second, but if a relationship is to go beyond that point, then condoms rapidly get very old indeed.

Did Jamie Lynn have secondary contraception? Why did it fail? Was she using the rhythm method and screwed up?

Did alcohol have something to do with having unprotected sex?

We, the public, really don't know the answer to any of these questions so we use this young woman as a tabula rasa on which to project our own belief, perceptions, and experiences.

Same goes for millions of other young women who become pregnant when we think they oughtn't to.

If we really want to reduce "unwanted" pregnancies, then what we need is a root cause analysis on a large number of pregnancies to determine the main factors.

Abstinence education may or may not be helpful. I suspect it isn't. But some people would argue that abstinence education gives many young women some tools to avoid early pregnancy. And maybe this is true for some young women. All approaches ought to be considered.