Originally Posted by CNN.com

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."

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."

Originally Posted by Crash Landon

For those who have casual sex, even then there are reasons: curiosity over a "taboo", a desire to become practiced so that one can truly please a lover that counts, a need to unwind and enjoy something in the moment, etc. These are all valid, despite the risks involved. Some authorities would insist otherwise, but that's really just crowd control. Nobody else has the right to tell you what to do with your body.

Originally Posted by Devoxycontin

Also this statistic seems a little odd, do they consider sex before a 2nd marriage and outside of the first, pre-marital sex?

Originally Posted by Capo

And, yet, the government does so every single day.

Originally Posted by Devoxycontin

Maybe it's just me but a lot of people who have sex cannot be labeled as "responsible adults." I don't feel this way because they had sex, but because regardless of being over 18 many people cannot deal with the consequences of sex. The government has no business in the private lives of others, however my previous points still stand.

Originally Posted by Devoxycontin

Don't always confuse the government with individuals in office Capo.

Originally Posted by Devoxycontin

Because there is a huge lobby for Alcohol. So powerful that alcohol isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

Originally Posted by Devoxycontin

The government also creates laws that keep people safe. Narcotics put people at risk and in danger, period.

Originally Posted by Crash Landon

"Pre-marital sex" is just a nicey-nice way of saying "adultery".

Originally Posted by Encephalon

In that case put me under the column that reads "adulterous whoremongering motherfucker". I think that has a nice ring to it.

Originally Posted by LeHah

I think these polls and studies are a bigger waste of money than any "abstinence" program.

Originally Posted by The Wise Vivi

I don't see anything wrong with sex as long as you are being smart about it. Learn the proper way to prevent disease and make sure you take the precautions to limited infections, etc., I mean, its about teaching people how to be smart and have the knowledge to be safe. Just telling them they shouldn't have sex, doesn't help in terms of educating people.