Is Sex Ed Working?

But the Family Research Council said the CDC study illustrates why abstinence education is crucial.

"The risk-avoidance or sexual abstinence-until-marriage strategy must be adopted to reverse the STD epidemic," said Moira Gaul, the Family Research Council's director of women's and reproductive health, in a statement.

"Abstinence education is increasingly providing an efficacious and holistic approach to protect our young people's current and future health," she said.

But the president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Cecile Richards, said "this abstinence-only education has really silenced teachers and has left kids completely in the dark."

Beyond the Beltway, medical professionals such as Dr. Kristine Zanotti, a gynecologic oncology physician at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, said the information teens receive is extremely varied.

"Some of them are remarkably well-informed, but some of them aren't," Zanotti said. "Until there are resources put towards comprehensive programs, much of this care is kind of piecemeal."