North Carolina's debate over abstinence-based sex education in public schools smolders on like an underground fire -- ready to flame when events bring it to the surface.

The most recent spark came with news that Sen. John McCain's vice presidential choice, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, has a pregnant 17-year-old daughter. Palin has spoken out for the abstinence-based approach, which is backed by President Bush and taught in most North Carolina counties, including Wake, as the only sex education allowed.

Prompted by the Palin case, conversations about sex education in the Triangle this week have highlighted the issue's polarizing effect. Christian activists continue to support the abstinence method, saying that high-profile cases such as the Palins' don't mean the approach should be changed.

"You don't make things better by lowering the standard," said the Rev. Mark Creech, executive director of the Christian Action League of North Carolina. He said sex outside marriage should be discouraged, just like any other risky behavior, including drug use, drunken driving, smoking and fighting.

Others, including a state public-health task force, have pushed to add more detailed information about contraceptives to the abstinence-based course. Earlier this year, a bill in the state legislature would have allowed local school boards to add topics, including the use of contraceptives, without the public hearings that have stalled comprehensive sex education in several counties. The bill made headway and will likely re-emerge when legislators return in January.

"I look at it as simple -- wouldn't you want to provide an infant with a vaccine from a lethal disease? Wouldn't you want to protect your middle-school or high-school student from HIV/AIDS?" said state Rep. Susan Fisher, an Asheville Democrat who sponsored the legislation.

Triangle students are caught in the middle.

Sean Cherlinczuk-French, 16, a junior at Needham Broughton High School in Raleigh, called the abstinence-based curriculum outdated because it doesn't talk frankly about contraception. "It's like it really doesn't deal with high school stuff today," Cherlinczuk-French said.

Ossai Olise, 17, a senior, said the curriculum doesn't make much of an impression on students.

"Students aren't going to get much useful information if they don't have good support at home or at church," she said. "I would like to see more information offered at school."

Many teens have sex

In North Carolina, according to state surveys, between 60 percent and 70 percent of high school seniors have had intercourse, and about 20,000 teenage girls get pregnant annually. North Carolina's teen pregnancy rate began trending down in 1990 -- before abstinence education was introduced to schools statewide in 1996 -- but has leveled in recent years, according to the state Division of Health Statistics.

Meanwhile, rates of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS, have increased overall for people 15-19 during the past five years -- indicating that young people who have sex are not using condoms that could guard against diseases, as well as pregnancy.

"If 60 percent of our high school students are having sex and what we are teaching is abstinence, it's not working," said state Sen. Bill Purcell, a Laurinburg physician, Democrat and member of the state public-health task force that recommended changes to sex education.

A widely cited 2007 federal study found that abstinence-based sex education has roughly the same effect as more-comprehensive programs that include additional information about birth control methods.

Proponents of abstinence have questioned the value of the study because its responses were self-reported by students.

But the discussion about the best way to teach sexuality to students ranges beyond the pros and cons of abstinence.

"I think there is a lot of common ground," said Dr. Leah Devlin, state health director and a member of the public-health task force. "We all want our children to abstain. We also want children to have complete information so that those who choose not to be abstinent know how to protect their health and prevent an unwanted, unintended pregnancy."

Some parents, such as North Raleigh resident Alan Slay, said it's the family's responsibility to teach about sexuality and other topics.

"Whatever Wake County wants to teach, that's fine, but that's something we talk about as a family," said Slay, whose daughter Kathleen is a senior at Wakefield High School. "We tell our kids to make good choices -- brief moments of indiscretion can lead to a lifetime decision."

Parents, however, may not be fully informed themselves, leading to incomplete or inaccurate information being passed along, said Melissa Reed, vice president for public policy for Planned Parenthood Health Systems in Raleigh.

"We need to do more to give our young people life-saving information that they can use throughout their adult life," Reed said. "Any comprehensive sex education course should include information about abstinence."

(Staff writers T. Keung Hui, Kristin Collins and Leah Friedman contributed to this report.)

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