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TechnoratiRosenbaum did note, however, that while conservative groups such as Focus on the Family are not ones to embrace a pro-contraceptive message, they and just about every organization are on the same page when it comes to one message.
"Parents should talk to their kids about their sex. It should not be single conversation, it should be a continued conversation at the moments that are teachable moments," she said. "Parents tend to hope that schools will take care of it; they can't, obviously."
Last year, a first-of-its-kind federal study startled some adolescent-health experts when it revealed that at least one in four teenage American girls has a sexually transmitted disease.
Researchers with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had found that the overall STD rate among the 838 girls in the study was 26 percent, which translates to more than 3 million girls nationwide.
Another groundbreaking research study released later in the year further suggested that pregnancy rates are much higher among teens who watch a lot of TV with sexual dialogue and behavior than among those who have tamer viewing tastes.
The study, released in the November 2008 issue of Pediatrics, found pregnancies to be twice as common among those who said they regularly watched shows such as "Sex and the City," "That '70s Show" and "Friends," compared with teens who said they hardly ever saw them.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, nearly half (46 percent) of all 15-19-year-olds in the United States have had sex at least once. Though only 13 percent of teens have ever had sex by age 15, by the time they reach age 19, seven in 10 teens are believed to have engaged in sexual intercourse.
Each year, almost 750,000 U.S. women aged 15-19 become pregnant and eleven percent of all U.S. births are to teens.
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