Big surprise: 'Virginity pledges' don't work

[Grimmlok]

No surprise here and I'm sure the lunatic right will do their best to ignore the results. The big question here is whether Obama and the new Congress will put an end to funding this waste of money or if they will buckle under yet again to the anti-science, anti-rational American Taliban. The problem is not only in the US as the Bush administration had exported this program (with US tax dollars, of course) around the world.


Teenagers who pledge to remain virgins until marriage are just as likely to have premarital sex as those who do not promise abstinence and are significantly less likely to use condoms and other forms of birth control when they do, according to a study released today.

The new analysis of data from a large federal survey found that more than half of youths became sexually active before marriage regardless of whether they had taken a "virginity pledge," but that the percentage who took precautions against pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases was 10 points lower for pledgers than for non-pledgers.

"Taking a pledge doesn't seem to make any difference at all in any sexual behavior," said Janet E. Rosenbaum of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, whose report appears in the January issue of the journal Pediatrics. "But it does seem to make a difference in condom use and other forms of birth control that is quite striking."

AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth

derrrr, religion makes sex retarded.

[sputnik]

god. next you're going to tell me that abstinence-only sex-ed doesn't prevent teen pregnancies. what is the world coming to??

[southernbelle]

Most people make virginity pledges when they are 11 or 12, before they are interested in or even fully understand sexual activity. That's why it doesn't work. These aren't informed, mature people making a knowledgeable decision to abstain from something. They're kids being pressured into signing these forms.

Many of these forms are given out at "Me, My Parents, and Sex" seminars that are sponsored by church youth groups. They are basically lectures with videos and Q&A sessions where parents can take their kids to "learn" about sex and why premarital sex is wrong.

When they starting passing around the virginity pledge forms, you feel like you HAVE to sign them, since your parents and church leaders are watching. Others are just given to the kids privately by their parents. Again, it's basically a situation where the child is signing under duress.

The people who usually stick to their pledges are people who decided in their late teens, on their own will and without any pressure from others, to abstain from sex. And most of them don't advertise it.

[Grimmlok]

They are basically lectures with videos and Q&A sessions where parents can take their kids to "learn" about sex and why premarital sex is wrong.

Wrong? Cute.

More 'unclean, dirty, impure' crap

[mamaste]

Bush is already fighting a war for peace. Why not try fucking for virginity?

[A*O]

So who organises those super creepy Chastity Balls where Daughers promise to remain clean and pure for their Daddy. Dr Freud would love it.

[southernbelle]

The ones that I'm familiar with have all been organized by either churches or the parents themselves. Of course, with the church ones, the parents are the ones who sign their child up to participate. The church will usually send an informational packet to the homes of the children in the youth group, addressed to the parents. It will include a registration form that you can fill out, indicating that you and your child will participate.

The church sponsored ones focus on children in the middle to early high school range (I would say about 6th-8th or 9th grade).

There are also parents who organize these things themselves, in their own homes, either with just their child or with a group of families. I know of one family who had a ceremony like this for their daughter. It's almost similar to a wedding ceremony. The father will often give the daughter a "promise" ring, which is worn on the wedding finger, as a symbol of her commitment to remain pure and to allow her father to be the "only man" in her life until she is married. I think this is the type of ceremony that Jessica Simpson had.

[Grimmlok]

yeah, that's batshit creepy, insane, and borderline pathologically incestuous.

[A*O]

I can't imagine anything more creepy or pointless [shudder].

[Mel1973]

So who organises those super creepy Chastity Balls where Daughers promise to remain clean and pure for their Daddy. Dr Freud would love it.

yeah, that's batshit creepy, insane, and borderline pathologically incestuous.

think "Joe Simpson"....

[A*O]

I had (safe) sex before I got married SPECIFICALLY to annoy my parents. That's what teenagers do isn't it?

[Butterfly]

If there is any kind of pledge it should be one for safe sex. Instead of a virgin ring they should make a reminder ring with the words aides, herpes, & pregnancy engraved around it.

[DeadDwarf]

My husband went to Catholic school his whole life and he's from a French Catholic family. He was pressured into signing a virginity pledge card when he was in his early high school years.

He said everyone signed one and they felt pressured because the Catholic school made a big deal about it and stood there while they "pledged" their virginity. He said you really didn't have a choice, at school you did what was expected. That's Catholic school for you though! And no surprise he turned his back on Catholicism and all religions as soon as he was out of school.

He has good stories about students caught screwing in the school chapel and girls that were sent away as soon as they got knocked up and returned a year later after they adopted their baby to a family member. He said they signed agreements that you would never abort a baby while attending the Catholic school. He said a girl in his class got pregnant and aborted it, the school found out (her best friend "reported" the abortion to the school) and she was kicked out. These are some of the reasons why my daughter won't be attending Catholic school like my in-laws want. I refuse to allow a school/religion to have this type of control over my child and her vagina..

/rant

[NicoleWasHere]

I think I'll just have sex with a million guys, before marriage, just to annoy the religious zealots. But it'll be ok, cause it'll all be anal and it won't count.

[DeadDwarf]

^ So you are going Jessica Simpson on us?