More evidence to back up common sense-- no matter what they say at the VMAs, virginity pledges are just silly. 

According to this study from the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,

Teenagers who pledge to remain virgins until marriage are just as likely to have premarital sex as those who do not promise abstinence and are significantly less likely to use condoms and other forms of birth control when they do.

This large federal study showed that while more than half of young people initiate sexual activity before marriage regardless of whether or not they've taken vows of abstinence until then, those who take virginity pledges are 10 percent less likely to use condoms consistently and 6 percent less likely to use any form of contraception than their non-abstinence-vowing peers.

The researcher suggests that this might just be a result of the information left out of the abstinence-only-until-marriage programs funded by the federal government.  "There's been a lot of work that has found that teenagers who take part in abstinence-only education have more negative views about condoms," she said. "They tend not to give accurate information about condoms and birth control."

The National Abstinence Education Association shockingly finds this science to make "wild, ideologically tainted and inaccurate analysis regarding the content of abstinence education programs."  Hmm, right.  Doesn't the Bloomberg School of Public Health just have partisan written all over it?

To me, it seems that once again science has come down on the side of comprehensive sex education with even more proof that abstinence-only programs don't equip young people with the information they need to best protect their own sexual health. 

So, really, can we stop funding them, please!? 

President-elect Obama has already expressed his support of sex education and we all hope that the incoming administration will provide leadership in bringing science back to the forefront of public health policymaking. 

But the Democratic Congress must do the same.  The rights of young people in this country have been bargained away for long enough and it is time for Congress they step up to the plate for what's right. 

I mean, come on, science is on your side!