Holy shit, that's even more backwards than my poor backwater Eastern European country where the Orthodox church still has big influence. Teaching sex-ed to kids and giving them free condoms is becoming the norm.

How is this possible in such a wealthy, educated and developed country?

No alcohol before 21, no sex before 18, etc., American kids must be going nuts over there.

This was unpopular enough with the rest of his party that he had to give up on it. One of the main objections was that since HPV is sexually transmitted protecting against it would encourage kids to have sex.

That is of course a ridiculous objection. You'd be hard pressed to find an actual horny teen couple for whom the risk that sex would lead to cervical cancer 30 years later would be something they would consider when deciding how far to go.