The Failure Rate of Abstinence?
Aug 17th, 2005 by Moonage
I have to first of all thank Eugene Volokh for pointing me to this article. That article contains this profound statement:
No method of contraception or disease prevention is effective when practiced incorrectly or inconsistently. A 1988 National Survey of Family Growth found abstinence to have a contraceptive failure rate of 26% when not practiced consistently. So, in abstinence, as in condom use, consistency is key.
Please, please, read that one carefully. You might to have read it several times, as I did, to make sure it makes as little sense as it really does.
Now, Eugene, being the scholar he is, addresses this as a scholar would.
I’m not a scholar. This is just awful, awful, awful writing! Eugene tries to understand what they are getting at. I however, feel that what they said is horribly misleading and could lead to horrible decisions based on people reading it exactly as it says. It says, if you abstain from sex, you have a 26% chance of getting pregnant. If you have sex, you might have about the same risk of getting pregnant. That folks, is FUBAR beyond all recognition. It DESPERATELY needs to be deleted from human consumption because not all humans are scholars. If a girl has a 26% chance of getting pregnant while abstaining from sex, why not just have sex and chance it? Sheezus.
For what’s it worth, they are TRYING to relay the message that if you choose abstinence, you better stick with it. If you don’t stick with it, you have a one in four chance of getting pregnant.
Of course, that only includes the Clintonian definition of sex. There are plenty of other things you can do. And, if you do those things consistantly, you’ll never get pregnant. If you do the Clintonian defined thing, there is a 26% chance you’ll get pregnant.
Now, isn’t that just a little clearer? And, I assure you, it wasn’t that hard to come up with.
