It is something of an understatement to say that a group of evangelical American virgins arriving in Glasgow next month will have their work cut out for them. Virginity has for so long been an aspiration lacking in Scottish girls that anybody attempting a conversion is, not to put too fine a point on it, a little late.

Nevertheless, the Silver Ring Thing, in essence an abstinence crusade, will launch its British tour in June, regardless of the prevailing climate of indulgence.

The scheme encourages young people to buy a silver ring and pledge to refrain from sex until marriage, the significance of the ring being “a constant reminder on the finger of the young person that helps them deal with the temptation that they face every day”, according to Denny Pattyn, the group’s founder.

Partly funded by the Bush administration, which has poured $120m into abstinence groups, there is something appealing about the Silver Ring Thing’s clarity of message. In a world of moral relativism and confused signals, it is charmingly uncomplicated just to tell teenagers: “Don’t do it!” The jury is still out over its efficacy in America, but could such a blunt approach ever work in Scotland, which has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancies in Europe?

Recent statistics show that teenage abortions in Scotland have also jumped to record levels, with more than 3,000 young girls terminating pregnancies last year, and there has been an explosion of chlamydia and other sexually- transmitted infections.

What is particularly worrying is that the rise in reckless sexual practice corresponds with the government’s view that equipping children for sex will reduce high-risk behaviour. The assumption that teenagers are going to have sex anyway so they may as well have access to contraceptive services has, predictably, encouraged more rather than less sexual activity.

The government’s controversial Healthy Respect project, which hands out contraceptives and morning-after pills without parental consent to children as young as 13, has seen teenage pregnancies among the under-16s increase by 46% and abortions soar by 55%. Launched in the Lothians three years ago with £3m from the Scottish executive, it is set to run for 10 years and could be extended throughout Scotland.

Why not scrap it immediately? The idea of a pilot, whether it is a television sitcom or a damage limitation exercise with adolescent hormones, is that it is a trial that lives or dies by results.

Young people who are tempted to become sexually active seem to regard the government’s strategy as a green light, a sanction, as if they needed one, to do what they were about to do. Even better, they don’t have to tell their parents.

Although the executive will not disown the policy or admit that it has been an abysmal failure, Malcolm Chisholm, the health minister, does appear to have been plagued by doubts recently. His sexual health strategy, under review and due to be introduced in schools later this year, will now shift its emphasis and focus on advising children to avoid sex until they are older.

The executive, apparently influenced to some extent by the Catholic Church in Scotland, has said: “The strategy will pave the way for improved sexual wellbeing for this and future generations founded on self-respect, respect for others and strong, respectful relationships.”

Of course it won’t be as simple as that. A sexual health strategy is about as enticing to a teenager as an alcohol-free alcopop and, when it is divorced entirely from any moral context, it is doomed from the start. The church is right about that. “Nowhere in the document is love, marriage, faithfulness or commitment endorsed or promoted,” said Cardinal Keith O’Brien, railing against the permissiveness of the safe sex dictum, which is at odds with Catholic teaching.

“The document is dismissive of education on abstinence, suggests contraception should be promoted even more and abortion made more easily available.”

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