Though I am a barely competent father of two young daughters, I do plan to excel at one of my patriarchal duties: avoiding any dialogue with my kids about sex, dating or ancillary topics that have even the slightest chance of degenerating into a discussion that involves human anatomy.

Working diligently behind the scenes, however, I already am keeping a close eye on the debate over sex education in anticipation of my forthcoming panic. And the debate is reigniting, as teenage pregnancy numbers, which, after years of decline, have begun to inch upward.

The birthrate among 15- to 19-year-olds rose 1.4 percent from 2006 to 2007 and jumped 3.4 percent from 2005 to 2006 -- this, after falling for 14 years.

When the news of this hit, James Wagoner of the rather universal-sounding "Advocates for Youth" claimed, "The United States can no longer afford to fund failed abstinence-only programs." Not surprisingly, Valerie Huber of the less-ambiguous "National Abstinence Education Association" retorted, "This is certainly not the time to remove any strategy that is going to provide skills for teens to avoid sex."

As you'll see, I believe both sides confer far too much credit on themselves, but when someone strings together the words "provide skills for teens to avoid sex," I am impelled to listen. I don't remember much about high school, but I do recall a fruitless four-year quest to lose the "skills" that helped me avoid sex.

So with this uncertainty, I was eager to uncover some useful information from a new, highly touted study on teen birthrates conducted by Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, which analyzed data collected from the federal government's Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a national survey of teen girls from ninth to 12th grades.

To boil it down, according to researchers, the increase in teen pregnancy can be tracked to a decrease in contraceptive use. All the focus on encouraging kids to remain abstinent instead of teaching them about contraceptives must, they suggest, be partly to blame for the rise in pregnancies.

The New York Times editorial board and others quickly used the study to condemn abstinence programs. Yet evidence to make this accusation is dubious -- according to researchers themselves. Continued...