Santa Monica, Calif. ? Laura Bush says gay marriages are “a very, very shocking issue” for some people, a subject that should be debated by Americans rather than settled by a Massachusetts court or the mayor of San Francisco.

Asked how she feels about the issue personally, Mrs. Bush replies: “Let’s just leave it at that.”

In an Associated Press interview, Mrs. Bush also endorsed sexual abstinence programs for teens, which are slated to get double their current funding under the president’s latest budget proposal.

Abstinence should be extensively discussed alongside contraception, she said. “We know it works. It’s 100 percent fail-safe.” She said most teenagers already received a lot of information about contraception options from the media. “I think it ought to be everything, but I also think that abstinence should definitely be talked about.”

Mrs. Bush discussed her views as she flew across the country at the start of a three-day trip to raise re-election cash for her husband’s campaign and to talk about education.

The trip took her to California where gay couples have been lining up to get marriage licenses in San Francisco. On the East Coast, Massachusetts’ highest court recently ruled that the state constitution permits gay marriages.

Wednesday at the White House, President Bush said, “I’m troubled by what I’ve seen” in Boston and San Francisco. But he declined to say whether he would support a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages, as conservative supporters expect him to do.

While declining to express her own opinions about gay marriages, Mrs. Bush said, “It’s an issue that people want to talk about and not want the Massachusetts Supreme Court, or the mayor of San Francisco to make their choice for them. I know that’s what the president thinks.

“I think people ought to have that opportunity to debate it, to think about it, to see what the American people really want to do about the issue.”