A study in the US has revealed that abstinence-only sex education methods taught in some high schools may be responsible for a gulf in young adults' attitudes towards pregnancy and contraception.
A survey of 1,800 people aged 18 to 29, conducted by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, found that 29% of women and 42% of men said it is 'slightly likely' that they will have unprotected sex in the next three months despite the majority of participants agreeing that pregnancy should be planned.
A further 17% of women and 19% of men said it was either 'quite likely' or 'extremely likely' for them to have sex without contraception in the next three months.
Laura Lindberg, senior research associate at the non-profit Guttmacher Institute, said: "Abstinence-only curriculums have gone explicitly out of their way to teach misconceptions about contraception," she said. "This generation of 20-somethings have missed many opportunities to get medically accurate and correct information."
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