MONDAY, Dec. 29 (HealthDay News) -- Teens who take virginity pledges are just as likely to have sex as teens who don't make such promises -- and they're less likely to practice safe sex to prevent disease or pregnancy, a new study finds.

With the election ending only a couple of weeks ago, Planned Parenthood of South Florida and the Treasure Coast wasted no time training 12 new public policy advocates at its Young Activist Advocacy Institute, which was held on Saturday, November 15^th in Fort Lauderdale.

Florida law mandates that sex-education programs in public schools teach "abstinence from sexual activity as the expected standard for all school-age children while teaching the benefits of monogamous heterosexual marriage."


But many Volusia County students don't live in that Ward-and-June world.

The United States has the highest rates of teen pregnancy and births in the western industrialized world. Teen pregnancy costs the United States at least $9 billion annually. Thirty-one percent of young women become pregnant at least once before they reach the age of 20—about 750,000 a year. Eight in 10 of these pregnancies are unintended and 81 percent are to unmarried teens.