Take a look around.

Seventy-five percent of MSU students are sexually active, and nearly 70 percent of them were sexually active before they came here.

The numbers have university health officials and policy-makers in Lansing divided about abstinence education.

"It's a political issue and it's a moralistic issue," said Dennis Martell, director of health education at Olin Health Center.

So the fight over how to teach sexual education in U.S. schools continues. It's a question of relying on abstinence or a more all-inclusive approach.

Attempting to address the question, a report released in December 2004 from the U.S. House of Representatives shows that more than 80 percent of federally funded abstinence-only curricula contain false, misleading or distorted information. To receive federal dollars for abstinence programs, schools are "not allowed to teach their participants any methods to reduce the risk of pregnancy other than abstaining until marriage," according to the House report.

One curriculum in the report falsely lists exposure to sweat and tears as risk factors for HIV transmission, while others teach that in a relationship women need financial support and men need admiration.

The report prepared for Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., challenges abstinence-only sexual education programs, citing that 11 of the 13 most commonly used and federally funded abstinence-only curricula contain errors and distortions.

Contrary to Waxman's report, abstinence education supporters said their doctrine is the only real way for students to stay protected. Some call the report politically motivated.

Supporters of more comprehensive sexual education programs said the report is an example of what's wrong with sexual education.

But both sides agree: With the consistently high number of teenage pregnancies and the number infected with sexually transmitted diseases, no issue is as critical a component of education in public schools as sex.

'Not a lot of sex left in it'

Martell has been involved with sexual education for more than 25 years and said his firsthand experience with students shows abstinence-only education is not the right choice.

"Students aren't coming into MSU with misinformation, they're coming with no information," he said. "If you ask a freshman five or six questions about STDs, they don't know the answer. When you restrict knowledge from people, you end up with ignorance - and that's what's happening."

Martell is also teaching a class on sexual psychology at Lansing Community College, and has taught sexual health classes at MSU.

He said the issue of abstinence-only education is not only that students aren't keeping their abstinence pledges, but if they choose to have sex, they don't have information about contraceptives or other aspects of intercourse.

As a director at Olin, Martell said he's exposed to MSU students' lack of sexual education every day.

"People with HIV come and don't know how to protect themselves because they were just told to 'say no,'" he said. "I have to deal with repercussions of this lack of information."

Martell analogized the shortsightedness of abstinence-only education to driver's education.

"Just think if they taught driver's ed like sex ed. They talked about taking care of the car, all its parts, and then tell you, 'But don't drive it until you're married,'" he said. "With sex ed, they teach you the plumbing and tell you to 'say no,' then send you to the world - it's just not common sense.

"Part of the problem with abstinence-only is that you assume just saying no is enough for a world surrounded with images of sex on a constant basis," he said.

Instead of abstinence-only curricula, Martell said schools need comprehensive sexual education programs emphasizing different facets of sex, including abortion, STDs and sexually transmitted infections, relationships, masturbation and homosexuality.

"When was the last time you ever saw a course on how to be in relationship or how to treat the other sex? Or one about gender or body image?" Martell said.

"I am a strong advocate of comprehensive sexual education - even safe-sex programs don't go far enough because many of the freshmen that come to MSU don't know the basic facts of sex: how to get consent, STDs and STIs, and how to get pleasure. There's a huge incongruity when it comes to sex education. Of the education in Michigan for sexuality, well, there's not a lot of sex left in it."

According to the National College Health Assessment survey, three-fourths of MSU students were sexually active in 2002.

"To still have abstinence education programs is inconceivable to me because of the fact that abstinence-only education programs don't work," Martell said. "Of the abstinence-only programs, I've not seen one yet that's successful."

Kathy Fahl, director of education for the Planned Parenthood Mid-Michigan Alliance, said Planned Parenthood first teaches sexual education with a pro-abstinence-based model, but also provides information about contraceptives and protection.

"That's what has shown to be effective time and time again," Fahl said. "It's what has shown to work to prevent kids to be sexually active, or be safe when they choose to be."

She said Planned Parenthood provides a "comprehensive approach to sex education," providing services like a Baby Think It Over program, which gives teens a sense of parenthood.

'Safe sex is a misnomer'

But on the other side of promoting contraceptives and discussing sexual topics is a large group of educators and policy-makers pushing for more abstinence-based curricula, and more federal tax dollars to fund the programs.

They said because abstinence is the only 100 percent effective solution against unwanted pregnancy or disease, sexual education programs should use their money to help prevent youth from having sex in the first place, not teach them more about what they shouldn't do.

Gary Swant is one of those in support of abstinence-only programs.

The retired classroom teacher and now sexual educator said although abstinence is certainly the only effective measure against pregnancy and disease, it's also the only fail-proof preventative against the emotional repercussions of being sexually active before marriage.

"I am not trying to prevent teenage pregnancy or STD infections; I'm trying to get young people to their marriage as emotionally healthy as possible," he said.

Swant is the president of Sexual Abstinence & Family Education Inc., a Montana-based company that he founded in 1993. SAFE Inc. has given more than 1,200 abstinence presentations to students in public schools, churches and communities.

He said his presentations have a strong abstinence-only message because there is no such thing as safe sex, and education shouldn't be clouding the idea of abstinence with information on contraceptives and aspects of sexuality.

"Safe sex is a misnomer, putting kids more at risk," Swant said. "There's nothing further from the truth. Contraceptive safety might have increased, but the failure rate of condoms with teenagers is 20 to 25 percent and the emotional trauma rate is 100 percent.

"I'd agree if there was something called safe sex, but there isn't," he said.

Swant said he discusses long-term relationship goals with students at his presentations to help build their emotional state before they come to a large university and are faced with new experiences.

"Teens come to me with emotional issues," he said. "My experience is that with kids who become sexually permissive they have high numbers of partners, which reduce successful marriages and create emotional struggles and a lack of self worth."

Swant doesn't teach about contraceptives and wouldn't give sexually active people protection because he said contraceptives provide an opportunity for unhealthy behavior.

"I would say to them, 'That's so unhealthy,'" he said. "You will find someone else who would provide them contraceptives."

Similar to Planned Parenthood, the Michigan Family Forum, 112 E. Allegan St. in Lansing, is a policy-shaping organization, but it aligns itself with the abstinence-only approach.

Dan Jarvis, research and policy director for the Michigan Family Forum, said Michigan families agree abstinence is the best option and it should be the only option.

"Abstinence is clearly the best option, and our goal is to see that schools see that it is the best option," Jarvis said. The forum supported recent legislation signed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm that gives parents more say in the type of sex education taught at their children's schools.

"Nobody says, 'Boy, I wish my 15-year-old was having sex,' so I think everyone agrees that (abstinence) is the best option," Jarvis said.

He dismissed the Waxman report as a politically motivated effort.

"I did not read his report, but it's obvious he had a set agenda - my initial reaction is to disregard the report," he said.

Brad Snavely, executive director for the Michigan Family Forum, said the organization doesn't want to dictate what is taught in public schools, and parents are pushing for more abstinence programs.

"Parents told us that schools were often just giving lip service to (abstinence)," he said. "They would say abstinence is best, but we aren't really going to talk about it, or encourage it strongly. We supported a bill to require schools to teach some minimal kinds of things about abstinence."

'Scare tactic'

Kira Woidan said she knows what the abstinence message sounds like.

The Spanish freshman took her sexual education class in eighth grade at Kenowa Hills Middle School, in Grand Rapids, and said the strong abstinence message fell by the wayside.

"Teachers talked about STDs to scare you from having sex," Woidan said. "It was more of a scare tactic than an educational class."

She said the school did present condoms, but they weighed contraceptives with a strong "Don't have sex" message.

"The teachers literally wouldn't be able to talk about birth control or abortion because they would get in trouble," she said. "It was abstinence only."

Woidan said after coming to MSU, she was around a different culture that taught her how to be safe, and answered her questions about sexual issues.

"Coming (to MSU) felt more comfortable, with people telling me the right way to have sex," she said.

Kenowa Hills Public Schools did not return repeated phone messages inquiring about their sexual education curriculum.

Federally funded

Despite the critical Waxman report, abstinence-only funding continues to be heavily supported by the Bush administration.

President Bush proposed spending $270 million on abstinence programs in 2005, but Congress reduced the number to about $168 million. In the last five years, abstinence funding has reached almost $900 million.

Even as Bush grants more federal dollars for abstinence-only curricula, Michigan's public schools don't teach the abstinence-only doctrine, but instead, a blend of the ideologies.

As the debate continues, both sides concede there will never be an all-comprehensive approach to sexual education that appeases everyone.

"The only way to overcome the problem of sex is for people is to take a step back and ask what it takes to be a healthy sexual adult," Martell said.