Reaping the whirlwind

Ohio is now considering a parental rights bill similar to Florida's. One of the best reasons for schools NOT to indoctrinate small children about sex--how, why, when, and who--is what the schools have done with ordinary, tried and true, historical meaning and traditional instruction on biology, i.e. how babies are made. It's called grooming. If you look at the statistics, when serious sex instruction took hold (with parental objection) in the 1960s and 70s, the teen pregnancy rate and subsequently the abortion rate, really took off. It did the opposite of what was intended. In the 1970s and early 1980s, the U.S. teen pregnancy rates rose. They remained steady through the 1980s, even as sexual activity among teens increased, due to improved contraceptive use among those teenagers who are sexually active. (Guttmacher, arm of Planned Parenthood statistics). When overall birthrates declined, unmarried teen pregnancies soared. The conservative and religious push to link marriage and sex was just too old fashioned for the age of easy contraception. Just wasn't "progressive," but Uncle Sam made a very bad step father for generations of Americans.

People have such faith in "education." Why, I don't know. All the bad political and financial policy ideas are sowed in academe and fertilized in Washington DC. We the people reap the whirlwind. Prove me wrong.

"They have planted the wind and will harvest the whirlwind. The stalks of grain wither and produce nothing to eat. And even if there is any grain, foreigners will eat it." Hosea 8:7

How contraception works

Understanding abortive contraception

From the beginning, hormonal birth control was based on deception. Hormonal birth control (the Pill, the Minipill, IUD, Norplant, the morning-after-pill, Depo-Provera, RU-486) has always had three possible functions.

The first, often most confused as the only function, is to prevent ovulation. If the first function fails, a possible second function is to thicken the mucus of the cervix so that the sperm cannot reach the egg. The third function, a function which all hormone based contraception has, is to thin the lining of the uterus so that the fertilized egg, the baby, is not able to implant in the uterus lining and is thus aborted (Alcorn 323-326, 332).

In early 1960, both Alan Guttmacher and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists defined conception as the moment of fertilization, or when the egg meets the sperm. This caused a problem because abortion was illegal then, making their pill and the IUD illegal. So in order to make their birth control, or what they falsely called contraception, legal, they altered the definition of conception.

By 1970, both changed their position and claimed that conception begins with fertilization and ends with implantation in the uterus. In other words, it was not a baby until it was implanted into the uterus (Cavanaugh-O’Keefe, The Roots Chapter Eleven).

To this day, America is aborting millions of babies in the name of contraception.

https://www.bound4life.com/history-of-abortion

And this empire was started by a nun from Akron, Ohio in 1981

"Boldness should be the eleventh commandment."
- Mother Angelica

“EWTN Global Catholic Network, in its 38th year, is the largest religious media network in the world. EWTN’s 11 TV channels are broadcast in multiple languages 24 hours a day, seven days a week to over 300 million television households in more than 145 countries and territories. EWTN platforms also include radio services transmitted through SIRIUS/XM, iHeart Radio and more than 500 domestic and international AM & FM radio affiliates; a worldwide shortwave radio service; the largest Catholic website in the U.S.; electronic and print news services, including Catholic News Agency, the National Catholic Register, and several global news wire services; as well as EWTN Publishing, its book-publishing division.”  (http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/ewtn-wins-lawsuit-over-hhs-contraception-mandate)

The reason I describe EWTN and its importance in religious media is because the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit issued an order Thursday vacating a 2014 district-court decision against the Eternal Word Television Network in its lawsuit against the so-called contraceptive mandate issued by the Department of Health and Human Services. The order follows a settlement between the network and the Department of Justice reached Oct. 5.
 
The specifics of the contraception mandate of the “Affordable Care Act” were not included in the original bill, but were announced in January 2012 by then-HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Obama promised EWTN and other religious groups there would be an exception made for them. He lied.  Imagine the money they’ve had to spend just so they didn’t have to provide birth control and abortions for staff.

Seven years!
EWTN Wins Lawsuit Over HHS Contraception Mandate
IRONDALE, Ala., Nov. 30, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Following a  legal battle that has lasted nearly seven years, EWTN Global Catholic Network has prevailed in its lawsuit against the U.S. government over what has become known as the "HHS Contraception Mandate." In an order by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit published Thursday, Nov. 29, 2018, the court vacated a June 2014 decision against the Network by U.S. District Court Judge Callie Granade. The ruling by the appellate court follows an Oct. 5, 2018 settlement agreement between EWTN and the Department of Justice. Under terms of that settlement, the Network will not be required to provide contraception, sterilization and abortifacients in its employee health plan, something EWTN found morally objectionable.

And finally some common sense from Washington.
The Departments of Health and Human Services, Treasury, and Labor released two updated rules concerning conscience protections for organizations and individuals in relation to the HHS contraception mandate. We once again are protected by the First Amendment from an over reaching federal government.  Until the next law suit.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/breaking-trump-administration-announces-broad-exemptions-for-hhs-mandate-84021

How contraception and abortion have changed the Christians' view of women

Christians note: Until 1930, no Christian denomination/group accepted birth control. Once the Anglicans did (Lambeth Conference), other followed. By the 1970s the Methodists, Assemblies of God, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Southern Baptists and many others accepted "family planning" with little theological reflection. They followed the culture. Then in 1973 abortion began making the rounds of Christians groups, now only the Catholics hold the line on both, even if individuals ignore church teaching. ELCA, the largest Lutheran synod, accepts abortion for any reason as a woman's choice.

This led to the acceptance of same sex relationships and marriage, then to the transgender unscientific hypocrisy. Pew Research reports 68% of white, mainline Protestants and 44% of black Protestants accept same sex marriage, a huge change in the last decade. According to Barna, 41% of Christians think cohabitation before marriage is a good idea. This is less than society as a whole, but even secular studies show it is a leading cause of divorce later.

The connection between marriage and procreation (God's first command in the Garden) has been severed and women have been devalued becoming simply sex objects. This has led to the current mess in our hypersexualized culture.

Read the whole article. https://www.firstthings.com/article/2018/01/protestants-and-contraception

Title X and the birth rate

Federal contraceptive funding was signed into law by President Nixon with Title X co-sponsored by Rep. GHW Bush (R-TX) in 1970. Must have been a success. Our birth rate is now below replacement, and although that accounts for married women, it hasn't changed much the birth rate for unmarried women and girls. It's been very useful in controlling the population of whites, thus we need to import immigrants. White median age is 41; Hispanic 27.
Planned Parenthood uses federal tax dollars to give contraceptives to children under 16 without informing their parents. More sex = more pregnancies = more abortions = more dollars for PP. Title X funding cannot be used for abortions, but Title X grant recipients and abortion providers are allowed to share office and staff. Planned Parenthood, the major recipient of Title X funding is also the largest abortion provider in the country. For FY 2017, Title X received $286.5 million, down from the program’s peak of $317.5 million (in FY 2010). Title X historically has been better funded under Republicans than Democrats. The most drastic cuts since 1982 were under Obama.
Of course, Guttmacher (PP) calls it a war to end birth control.
https://www.usnews.com/opinion/policy-dose/articles/2017-07-17/the-trump-administration-is-waging-a-war-on-birth-control
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/08/title-x-headline_n_846852.html
https://www.hhs.gov/opa/title-x-family-planning/about-title-x-grants/funding-history/index.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/06/30/the-u-s-fertility-rate-just-hit-a-historic-low-why-some-demographers-are-freaking-out/

Obama vs. Jefferson

 

When President Jefferson arranged for the Louisiana Purchase he assured the Nuns of the Order of St. Ursula that the principles of the Constitution and the government of the United States would be sacred and inviolate for them, and that they would be permitted to govern themselves according to their own voluntary rules without interference from the civil authority. He praised them for their wholesome purpose of training up the younger members in the way they should go, and that his office would protect them. "I salute you, holy sisters, with friendship and respect." Letter to Ursuline Nuns of New Orleans, July 13, 1804. 

All Christian churches taught against contraception until about the 1930s, when one by one they followed the lead of the Anglicans. But the Catholic church has never wavered. President Obama knew that when he railroaded the ACA through Congress with no Republican support. It's too bad that President Obama, who has sued Little Sisters of the Poor for not violating their religious beliefs, can't assure 21st century nuns of the same protection of the Constitution and his office that President Jefferson did.

Contraception

"Humanae Vitae was issued in 1968. It is fair to say that it dropped on the world like a bomb. It marked the beginning of a huge divide in the Church. Major theologians held press conferences and told Catholics they did not need to live by this decision, that it was based on inadequate understanding of natural law and that Catholics were free to do what their consciences told them to about contraception. It is certainly true that Catholics are obliged always to act by their conscience. But we must remember that the conscience is not an individual's opinion. The conscience is really the place within – it's called the inner sanctuary – where a person talks with God and tries to find out what God deems to be right. A judgment of the conscience should not be what the individual judges to be right, but what God judges to be right. If a Catholic is confused about contraception, he or she needs to ask: What does God think about contraception?
But how do we know what God thinks? Catholics naturally look to the Church to learn what God thinks since Catholics belong to a church that claims to be guided by God, the Holy Spirit.

After one of my talks, a woman told me that her conscience was perfectly comfortable with contraception. I told her I didn't want to be judgmental but there's a problem with that statement. If the conscience is the sanctuary where God speaks to a person, where the Holy Spirit guides us, what she is saying is that the Holy Spirit has managed to tell her that contraception is moral. That same Holy Spirit did not manage to inform Pope John Paul II that contraception is moral. Pope John Paul II was on his knees praying for more hours in any given day than most of us are in a month's time. And he certainly did not want to place burdens on people. In his prayer he undoubtedly asked the Holy Spirit: What do you want me to tell your people? How do I guide them? How do I bring them closer to Christ? We know he did not hear the Holy Spirit tell him to teach that contraception is moral." Janet E. Smith, Contraception: Why Not?

Some consider the abortion pill contraception.  Now the FDA has extended its kill time to 10 weeks. We know the babies die; and some mothers will, too.
 http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/abortion-pill-fda-rules/2016/03/30/id/721570/
 http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/fdas-abortion-pill-expansion-targets-babies-up-to-10-weeks-into-pregnancy-96027/

The Early Church, contraception and abortion

Some Christians think the church has not always disapproved of contraception and abortion (especially if they listen to that well known theologian, Nancy Pelosi). They may think the HHS battle just belongs to the Catholics.  They would be wrong. For the first centuries of the church, we share many of the “founding” documents written after the New Testament gospels and letters.  The earliest, the Didache, which is sort of a catechism for new believers, is very clear on this issue. Abortion and even infanticide and offering children to the pagan gods were not uncommon among the cultures of the early converts, so something needed to be said. Due to the length of this article, I’m only using the high lights, and I suggest you look at the original if interested in this topic.

The earliest reference to contraception and abortion is in the Didache, a document from the second half of the first century or early second century. Didache reads: “You shall not practice birth control, you shall not murder a child by abortion, nor kill what is begotten” (2).

Many translations read “practice sorcery” because the Greek word sometimes has that meaning (see Wisdom 12:4, Galatians 5:20, Revelation 18:23). However, it also means practice medicine or use poison, and the term may refer to contraceptive measures, as is the case in a number of the following texts.

Another early text is the Epistle of Barnabas: “You shall not slay the child by procuring abortion, nor shall you destroy it after it is born” (19). This also shows that the earliest Christians forbade abortion.

In the second century, St. Clement of Alexandria wrote in the Paedagogus (2.10.96): “Women who resort to some sort of deadly abortion drug kill not only the embryo, but along with it, all human kindness.” This passage supports our translation of the Didache by mentioning the use of drugs to induce abortion.

In 177, Athenagoras of Athens wrote in the Supplication for the Christians: “And when we say that those women who use drugs to bring on abortion commit murder, and will have to give an account to God for the abortion, on what principle should we commit murder?”

.. .Tertullian’s Apology in 197, while he was still in union with the Church, says, “In our case, murder being once for all forbidden, we may not destroy even the fetus in the womb, while as yet the human being derives blood from other parts of the body for its sustenance. To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man-killing; nor does it matter whether you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to the birth.”

In the third century, Minucius Felix (226) wrote in Octavius: “There are some women who, by drinking medical preparations, extinguish the source of the future man in their very bowels, and thus commit a parricide before they bring forth” (30).

Around 228, St. Hippolytus wrote about unmarried women, including some reputed to be Christians, who became pregnant from illicit relationships. In his Refutation of All Heresies, he says, “Whence women, reputed believers, began to resort to drugs for producing sterility and to gird themselves round, so to expel what was being conceived on account of their not wishing to have a child either by a slave or by any paltry fellow, for the sake of their family and excessive wealth. Behold, into how great impiety that lawless one has proceeded by inculcating adultery and murder at the same time! And withal, after such audacious acts, they, lost to all shame, attempt to call themselves a Catholic Church” (9.7).

. . . . A document known as the Constitutions of the Holy Apostles reads “You shall not slay thy child by causing abortion, nor kill that which is begotten; for ‘everything that is shaped and has received a soul from God, if it be slain, shall be avenged, as being unjustly destroyed’” (7.1).

This states the belief that the fetus has a soul and its life must be protected from conception forward.

. . .  St. Augustine wrote On Marriage and Concupiscence (419). . .  “I am supposing, then, although you are not lying [with your wife] for the sake of procreating offspring, you are not for the sake of lust obstructing their procreation by an evil prayer or an evil deed. Those who do this, although they are called husband and wife, are not; nor do they retain any reality of marriage, but with a respectable name cover a shame” (1.15.17).

St. Basil the Great wrote in his First Canonical Letter, Canon 2: “The woman who purposely destroys her unborn child is guilty of murder. With us there is no nice enquiry as to its being formed or unformed. In this case it is not only the being about to be born who is vindicated, but the woman in her attack upon herself; because in most cases women who make such attempts die. The destruction of the embryo is an additional crime, a second murder, at all events, if we regard it as done with intent” (374). . .

St. Jerome, Letter 22 to Eustochium (396), said: “Some, when they find themselves with child through their sin, use drugs to procure abortion, and when (as often happens) they die with their offspring, they enter the lower world, laden with the guilt not only of adultery against Christ, but also of suicide and child murder. Yet it is these who say: ‘Unto the pure all things are pure; my conscience is sufficient guide for me.’ A pure heart is what God looks for” (13).

Not only did many of the great theologians address abortion and contraception, but so did some councils.. . 

Likewise, the Catholic author of this article says, Luther and Calvin also condemned the practice.

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/abortion-contraception-and-the-church-fathers#ixzz2VQhyQsx9

And now children can buy them over the counter with no supervision

Barbara Seaman published The Doctor’s Case Against the Pill in 1969, which exposed side effects of oral contraceptives including the risk of blood clots, heart attack, stroke, depression, weight gain and loss of libido. But it wasn’t until almost 20 years later the dosage was reduced and by 2000 the EEOC was requiring coverage in health insurance.  Still, there are studies that claim oral contraceptives are carcinogens, and fifty years [2010] after the FDA approval there were 1,100 lawsuits pending against Bayer Healthcare Corporation regarding blood clots, heart attacks and strokes allegedly caused by the popular pills Yaz, Yazmin and the generic Ocella.

Catholics have an advantage . . .

Roman Catholics have three sources of revealed truth.  They not only have God’s written word, the Holy Bible, but they have tradition and the Magisterium.  Apparently, many Catholics are not following all three.

           

News on the War on Women

Live Action released undercover footage June 6 showing two National Abortion Federation (NAF) clinics in Arizona agreeing to break state law and perform an illegal sex-selective abortion. The video is the third release in Live Action’s “Gendercide” project, documenting Planned Parenthood and NAF’s support for sex-selective abortion in America. But you probably haven't heard the President speak out on this particular War against Women, or even seen it on ABC, CBS, NBC or the cable networks, who feel they need to protect the President, and Planned Parenthood which has endorsed him. The same Planned Parenthood that slapped down and cowed the Susan G. Komen Foundation into submission when it dared to step out of line.

http://liveaction.org/blog/az-abortion-clinics-break-law-to-abort-baby-girls-in-new-undercover-video/

The "right to free contraception" which was invented from thin air in 2012, is now more important to Obama supporters than all our First Amendment Rights, the roots of which are in the Bible and many centuries of Western thought and philosophy. Obama (a lapsed UCC-an whose former pastor says he didn’t attend church much) and Pelosi (a cafeteria Catholic who supports abortion and gay marriage) support this new creation, but not our guarantee of religious freedom found in our Bill of Rights.

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/03/lib-hero-sandra-fluke-free-birth-control-is-a-natural-human-right-i-wont-be-silenced/

This isn't just a Catholic thing

Yes, there really is a war against women, and it isn't being waged from the Right. It's called the Sexual Revolution; women have been badly damaged and society has been permanently changed.

"In severing sex from procreation, humankind set into motion forces that have by now shaped and reshaped almost every aspect of life in the Western world. Families are smaller, birthrates have dropped, divorce and out-of-wedlock births have soared. Demography has now even started to work against the modern welfare state, which has become harder to sustain as fewer children have been produced to replace aging parents.

The sexual revolution has transformed economics, culture and law. Witness this week's Supreme Court case, in which the question at hand is whether an individual's Social Security survivor benefits belong to children conceived with his sperm months after he died.

Even on the religious playing field, this isn't just a Catholic thing. Christian teaching against artificial contraception dates back to the earliest Church fathers confronting pagan Rome. Christians remained united on that teaching until relatively recently—1930, to be exact, which is the year that the Anglican Communion made its first, carefully circumscribed exceptions to the rule. Orthodox Jews, Mormons and some traditionalist Protestants have also pondered the issue and ended up proscribing or limiting contraception in different circumstances."

Mary Eberstadt in the Wall Street Journal, March 24

Does a culture of contraception increase or decrease abortion?

At first it seems counter-intuitive. Look at the money we are shelling out for Title X (a Nixon program for family planning services for the poor). Unless you really think it through. Over half the abortions are for women who used birth control. Many birth control methods, unless used exactly as directed, like the patch or the ring, or when used in conjunction with certain medications fail. But easily available and heavily used contraception increases abortions.

From the proponents of the Sexual Revolution and the Abortion Industry:
“Sexologist” Alfred Kinsey, 1955: “At the risk of being repetitious, I would remind the group that we have found the highest frequency of induced abortions in the groups which, in general, most frequently uses contraception.”

Abortionist Malcolm Potts, the former director of Planned Parenthood of England, 1976: “As people turn to contraception, there will be a rise, not a fall, in the abortion rate…”

Alan Guttmacher Institute (Planned Parenthood’s Research Arm) researcher Stan E. Weed: “[F]or every 1000 teens between 15-19 years of age enrolled in family planning clinics, we can expect between 50 to 120 more pregnancies”

Abortionist Judith Bury, 1981: “There is overwhelming evidence that, contrary to what you might expect, the provision of contraception leads to an increase in the abortion rate.”

Now, a 10-year study, the largest of its kind (based in Spain), has concluded that increased levels of contraception increases sexual intercourse at a rate that drives up abortion rates by overcompensating for the decreased conception rate per sexual encounter. Contraception. 2011 Jan;83(1):82-7. Epub 2010 Jun 17. "Trends in the use of contraceptive methods and voluntary interruption of pregnancy in the Spanish population during 1997-2007."

RESULTS: During the study period, 1997 to 2007, the overall use of contraceptive methods increased from 49.1% to 79.9%. The most commonly used method was the condom (an increase from 21% to 38.8%), followed by the pill (an increase from 14.2% to 20.3%). Female sterilization and IUDs decreased slightly and were used by less than 5% of women in 2007. The elective abortion rate increased from 5.52 to 11.49 per 1000 women.

The Catholic Populist

Words matter

"Reproductive health" means abortion. "Reproductive justice" means aborting black and poor women's pregnancies. This is a huge industry made up of pharmaceutical companies, non-profits, government agencies, and academic departments in university medical centers. This industry also has strong ties to the environmental and racialist movements. Follow the money. If all teen-age black and poor girls returned to the birth rate and marriage rate of the 1960s, entire empires of social workers, researchers and doctors would collapse, particularly women doctors, would have to close up shop and look for ways to save lives instead of taking them.

Non-profits are critical to this death industry. They are like ACORN--many different names. Ibis. Society of Family Planning. National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association. Association of Reproductive Health Professionals. Urban Initiative. National Institute for Reproductive Health. Boston Medical Center. Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health. National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. Oregon Foundation for Reproductive Health. Ohio Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. Akron Women's Medical Group. Charlotte Ellertson Social Science Postdoctoral Fellowship in Abortion and Reproductive Health. Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health (Columbia). The Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health. Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health (UCSF). Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (UCSF). Center for Reproductive Rights.

54% of women having abortions used a contraceptive method during the month they became pregnant. 76% of pill users and 49% of condom users reported using the methods inconsistently, while 13% of pill users and 14% of condom users reported correct use. (Early abortion training workbook) With statistics like that you would almost think that wider availability of contraceptives and more abortions are linked, wouldn't you?

Truly, it's a many headed serpent going after everything from including their training and anti-life mission in medical board certification to bringing down crisis pregnancy centers.

With an abortion friendly president, pro-abortion non-profits and medical centers find much cause to celebrate--"the end of the Global Gag rule, prospects for universal health insurance, and a reassertion of the importance of science in public policy formation." From one of their "reproduction health" websites.

Support the Thomas More Society

Full employment at Planned Parenthood guaranteed

The illegitimacy rate for births among teenage girls hovered around five to seven percent for decades, until about 1960. Between 1960 and 1970, it doubled as the birth control pill helped usher in the 'Sexual Revolution.' After 1970, the teenage illegitimacy rate literally exploded as comprehensive sex education programs and school-based clinics were introduced. Currently, the illegitimacy rate among teenage girls is about forty percent.

Link

Have you ever wondered about how contraceptives are developed and tested?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the abortifacient Norplant, [developed by the Population Council] for public use on December 10, 1990. Norplant was formally introduced to the American public in February 1991.

As of December 2004, about one and a half million North American women had used Norplant. More than 50,000 of these women have brought more than 200 lawsuits, including 70 class-action suits, against Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories.

The Population Council with roots in the eugenics movement (like Planned Parenthood) is headquartered in NY, but has 18 offices in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and does work in more than 60 countries. It employs more than 500 people from 33 countries ($74 million budget). It develops abortifacients and contraceptives (Norplant, Jadelle, IUDs, Mirena) and tests them on third world women before bringing them home to us as "safe and effective." Even so there are many law suits pending because these chemicals can really mess up a woman's body for years. Population Council was established and funded by the Rockefellers. http://popcouncil.org/who/leadership.asp

I've always wondered how they round up a group of sample women who've just had sexual intercourse, then take the drug to be tested from the researcher, then take a test to see if an embryo has implanted, then compared to women who took a placebo or nothing (how much did they know?). Same with AIDS research.

Anyone know how you procure women for research like that? What job title do the people have who go out and find them? “Randy round-up,” “Rustlers for research,” “Corral and collect.” I read a lot of medical literature. That's never been explained.

Look. New drugs have to be tested on a mammal somewhere along the line--either animals or poor people. This could be why strong links are showing up between contraceptives and breast cancer and abortion and breast cancer.

3443 Virginity pledges vs. condom use in adolescents

Why do you suppose some groups, the media especially, are so opposed to teens being instructed that abstinence is a viable alternative in sex education? Never mind, just tuck that thought away for another day and move one to things we do know. Studies do show that parents are in favor of abstinence education. What got the most media attention hype was a report [Peter Bearman and Hanna Bruckner in the Journal of Adolescent Health, April 2005] that apparently showed virginity pledges made no statistically significant difference in STDs in young adulthood. Upon rechecking their methods that was found not to be the case because their methods also showed that condom use failed even more in making a difference in STDs among this sample, and they were not looking at the teen years, but 7 years after the fact. A study done in June 2005 showed the Bearman and Bruckner study had many design flaws, plus the media had ignored many of the statistically significant differences, like male pledgers had 30% lower rate of infection than non-pledgers. I only bring it up now because recently I heard this misinformation mentioned on a talk show.

Lower STD rates [25%] is just one among a broad array of positive outcomes associated with virginity pledging. Previous research has shown that, when compared to non-pledgers of similar backgrounds, individuals who have taken a virginity pledge are:

Less likely to have children out-of-wedlock;
Less likely to experience teen pregnancy;
Less likely to give birth as teens or young adults;
Less likely to have sex before age 18; and,
Less likely to engage in non-marital sex as young adults.
In addition, pledgers have far fewer life-time sexual partners than non-pledgers. There are no apparent negatives associated with virginity pledging: while pledgers are less likely to use contraception at initial intercourse, differences in contraceptive use quickly disappear. By young adult years, sexually active pledgers are as likely to use contraception as non-pledgers.

Read it here, "Adolescent Virginity Pledges, Condom Use, and Sexually Transmitted Diseases Among Young Adults" by Robert Rector and Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D., June, 2005.

Although the groups compared did have similar backgrounds, it appeared to me that more non-pledgers were from divorced homes with higher incomes and less religious involvement than the virginity pledge youth. However, whether the differences were statistically signficant enough to satisfy social scientists, I don't know.

And as we all know from life, making a promise doesn't mean keeping a promise.

Here's a good discussion opener for you and your daughter.

technorati: virginity pledges, contraception, condoms, STDs