Abstinence? Sure. Until something better comes along.

This from MSNBC, Photo by Mike Kemp/Getty Images:

Abstinence?

From what?

For how long?

Teens and adults have murky, conflicting definitions when it comes to not having sex.

If you already worry about the way your teenager can swing wildly from one viewpoint to another, you probably don't want to hear this. “Kids can believe in abstinence, but also intend to have sex,” said N. Tatiana Masters, a social scientist at the University of Washington and author of a new study on teens' contradictory attitudes about abstinence and sex.

The research, published in the current issue of Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, shows that adolescents and teens often hold seemingly irreconcilable ideas about having sex, confounding the abstinence-only sex education message supported by over a billion dollars of federal funding. The finding adds to a growing body of evidence eroding confidence in abstinence-only sex education.

Roughly $1.5 billion in federal grants to state education authorities have been distributed to finance abstinence-only curricula since the Clinton administration. But some states, like California, Wisconsin and Ohio, have stopped accepting the grants because the money is tied to a mandated abstinence-only message that studies have shown to be largely ineffective...