In most North Carolina counties, public school-based sex education must focus on abstinence only. Debate continues, however, between abstinence-only proponents and advocates of comprehensive sex education.

Surveys show that 60-70 percent of North Carolina high school seniors have had intercourse. About 20,000 teenage North Carolina girls get pregnant annually, a figure that has remained steady in recent years, the Division of Health Statistics reported. During the past five years, rates of STDs, including HIV/AIDS, have increased among state youths ages 15 to 19.

"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 (D-Laurinburg), a physician and a member of a task force that has recommended changes to the sex education curriculum.

"I look at it as simple," said state Rep. Susan Fisher (D-Asheville). "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?" Fisher sponsored a bill, taken up by legislators last year and likely to re-emerge in the next session, that would allow local school boards to expand sex education topics without holding the public hearings that have stalled such reforms in several counties.

Others disagree. "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. Creech believes sex outside marriage should be discouraged like other risky behaviors.

Still, Dr. Leah Devlin, state health director, sees "a lot of common ground." "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," she said.

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