Last month, media outlets wasted no time in pouncing on a new study questioning the effectiveness of abstinence pledges.  “‘Abstinence-only’ is a total crock,” “Abstinence isn’t enough,” and “Premarital Abstinence Pledges Ineffective, Study Finds“ were just a few of the headlines purporting the study proved that teenagers who take virginity pledges are no less sexually active than other teens.

But according to Wall Street Journal columnist William McGurn, the headlines are not only misleading but also untrue. He writes that the only way the study could reach such results was by comparing teens who take a virginity pledge with teens who are just as religious and conservative.

The first to notice something lost in the translation was Dr. Bernadine Healy, the former head of both the Red Cross and the National Institutes of Health. Today she serves as health editor for U.S. News & World Report. And in her dispatch on this study, Dr. Healy pointed out that “virginity pledging teens were considerably more conservative in their overall sexual behaviors than teens in general — a fact that many media reports have missed cold.”

What Dr. Healy was getting at is that the pledge itself is not what distinguishes these kids from most other teenagers. The real difference is their more conservative and religious home and social environment. As she notes, when you compare both groups in this study with teens at large, the behavioral differences are striking. Here are just a few:

- These teens generally have less risky sex, i.e., fewer sexual partners.

- These teens are less likely to have a teenage pregnancy, or to have friends who use drugs.

- These teens have less premarital vaginal sex.

- When these teens lose their virginity they tend to do so at age 21 — compared to 17 for the typical American teen.

- And very much overlooked, one out of four of these teens do in fact keep the pledge to remain chaste — amid much cheap ridicule and just about zero support outside their homes or churches.

McGurn says the story’s real headline should have been “Religious Teens Differ Little in Sexual Behavior Whether or Not They Take a Pledge.” But unfortunately that “is not something you’re likely to read in the headlines,” McGurn notes. ”For when it comes to challenging the conventional wisdom on issues of sexuality, the American media suddenly become as coy as a cloistered virgin.”