The Context of Contraception/Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse

Cristina has confounded multiple issues in her posts. Much of her discussion focuses on the use of contraception by married couples. That sanitizes the discussion. The major policy innovation was not so much Griswold v. Connecticut, which concerned the rights of married couples, but Eisenstadt v. Baird, which protected the rights of individuals, married or not, to use contraception. Do we really believe that increase in non-marital sexual activity has been a positive social development? I do not.

She wants to know what pro-lifers are going to do to reduce abortions. Delaying the age of initiating sexual activity reduces the abortion rate, the STD rate, and has a number of other benefits, both public and private.

According to a study by Ralph Rector:
Girls who begin sexual activity at an earlier age are far more likely to have abortions. Nearly 30 percent of girls who started sexual activity at ages 13 or 14 have had an abortion. By contrast, some 12 percent of girls who began sexual activity in their early 20s have had an abortion.

• Beginning sexual activity at a young age greatly increases the probability of becoming infected with sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Girls who began sexual activity at age 13 are twice as likely to become infected by an STD as girls who started sexual activity at age 21.
• Women who begin sexual activity at an early age are far more likely to become pregnant and give birth out-of-wedlock. Nearly 40 percent of girls who commence sexual activity at ages 13 or 14 will give birth outside marriage. By contrast, 9 percent of women who begin sexual activity at ages 21 or 22 will give birth outside marriage.

To the extent that the combination of the availability of contraception and the contraceptive mentality lowers the age of first sexual experience, it is implicated in increasing abortions, not reducing them.

Look, I really think that many people could support a goal of raising the age of first sexual experience.
posted by Dr J Roback Morse at 2:11 PM VOTE

2 Comments:

At 4/25/2006 4:35 PM,  Chairm said...

Jennifer, those are good, solid, basic points.

An oversexualized culture that also delays marriage has been trying to buldoze that foundation.

The first experience of coitus -- now presumably nonmarital -- has become the milestone that signifies "normal maturation" of adolescents and young adults.

This virtually makes premarital sexual intercourse a prerequisite for a healthy sexuality, as per the general coarsening of our sexual culture.

Jennifer, does your worldview boildown to the noncoercive encouragement of chastity, both within and outside of marriage?

[I mean, chastity, in its fullest sense, and not as the superficial pop cultural cliche of underaged virgin brides and neurotic celibate monks. I mean the sublimation of sexual urges rather the suppression of our human sexuality.]

 

At 4/27/2006 12:54 AM,  SPorcupine said...

"Do we really believe that increase in non-marital sexual activity has been a positive social development? I do not."

This question and the answer stopped me short, because I agree but didn't know I did until just now. I'd been thinking some of the activity is a disaster, some is dull, and some is fun--but I hadn't summed it up into an overall opinion.

Thanks for pushing the issue so directly.

 

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