Recently, there have been a number of “public service” ads promoting abstinence until marriage. Now, as a parent of a teen-age daughter and a pre-teen son, certainly the message is targeted toward me and my family. However, I wonder whether the message presents a realistic opportunities to today’s young adults - and whether we’re missing the boat on contraception and other important public health initiatives.
The single biggest problem that I have with the initiative, conceptually, is that it encourages early marriage, a scourge that this society has, to a large extent, gotten rid of - particularly because of its stifling effect on girls, who generally marry younger than boys.
If one listens to the propoganda offered by the government media, horniness will force more to marry early - so that they, too, can enjoy sex.
To be sure, I have nothing against slowing the rate of teen pregnancy - it is a laudable goal. Also, one has to recognize that women are naturally more responsible than men for dealing with the aftermath. However, expecting kids to be able to resist purely natural urges until marriage creates an incentive toward marriage at an age that is too young and for reasons that may not encourage marital stability.
If I were designing public policy, I’d require all kids to learn about all alternatives, then provide girls with additional education intended to make them more careful, either through abstinence or through proper birth control. After all, they and their families tend to disproportionately wind up with the responsibility of rearing these children.
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