After Iraq, the Bush administration now has found itself in another place where it has no right to be: the bedroom.

No longer satisfied with trying to preach abstinence to the under-18 crowd, the government has changed the wording of its abstinence program guidelines to include a focus on the sexual activities of people ages 19-29 as well. Previously, the guidelines didn't specify the ages targeted.

The abstinence education programs that the government endorses — and are paid for with millions of taxpayer dollars — teach people that abstaining from sex is the only way to effectively prevent pregnancy and disease. Never once do these programs offer information or instruction on birth control and safer sex practices.

Abstinence for teenagers already is pushing the envelope. This age group should be given all facts about sex, but abstinence education for adults is a ridiculous waste of time, energy and money. It is simply not a realistic goal. By now, more than 90 percent of adults ages 20-29 already have had sex, effectively undercutting whatever progress the government's new plan hopes to achieve.

Rather than shovel more money into a program that mainly tries to scare people out of sex, why not funnel that money into a program that will help or educate people? The government needs to wake up, be realistic and deal with the issue at hand: People are having sex.

If the government is this keen on keeping adults sexually healthy, it should be funding courses that teach safer sex and educate people about birth-control options. Tax money should not be spent on promoting the Bush administration's fundamentalist views on sex between consenting adults.

Further, it would appear that the government's motives are — surprise, surprise — not entirely altruistic. The sudden push for adult abstinence may have something to do with the fact that more and more unwed women in the target-age range are having children.

Forgetting for the moment this particular statistic is none of the government's business and should not be the impetus for legislation or action of any kind, the statistic might not be as dire as the government would like to think.

The number could very well be indicative of the fact adult women no longer feel pressure to marry just because they are pregnant and know that a bad marriage is not good for anyone involved, especially a child.

Regardless of where one stands on the rate of unwed (and adult) mothers, the message is clear: This policy is yet another example of an overbearing administration trying to dictate its own sense of morality.

The government has no business promoting abstinence to consenting adults, and given that our country is sinking ever-deeper into a wildly expensive quagmire of a war, it would seem that we, as a nation, have something more important to focus on than sexual proclivities of young adults. This is money and time that would be better used on issues that actually matter.