In The Blogs

Religious Teens Have More Abortions

| Mon Jun. 1, 2009 6:53 PM PDT

800px-Map_of_US_minor_abortion_laws.svg.png

— Map of US minor abortion laws / Lokal_Profil & Kyd / Wikimedia

Unwed teens and 20s who attend or have graduated from private religious schools are more likely to obtain abortions than their peers from public schools.

New research suggests that while religiosity (defined as religious involvement, frequency of prayer, and perception of the importance of religion) influences the attitudes of young women towards abortion, it does not affect their actual behavior.

In other words, even religious women, if unmarried and pregnant, resort to abortion—particularly women in their teens. This according to new research published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

Hypocrisy sucks.

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Comments

I can't wait for Ross

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon Jun. 1, 2009 7:41 PM PDT.

I can't wait for Ross Douthat to write an thoughtful NYT op-ed about this finding.

Abortion among religious teens...

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon Jun. 1, 2009 7:50 PM PDT.

Why is this surprising? The indoctrination these kids receive at their schools and churches teaches that sexual activity is a no-no. A little bit of sex education would go a long way towards preventing unwanted pregnancies. Forbidden fruit is sweet and the consequences are something that no one,especially the parents of these young people ,wants to deal with. Hypocrisy rules. Empowering young women to want more out of life and to respect themselves wouldn't hurt either.

Citations?

Submitted by Sitakali (not verified) on Tue Jun. 2, 2009 3:33 AM PDT.

It would be great to see some citations or links. Can you specify which issue/volume of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior this comes from? I like to be able to back up my arguments. Cheers.

RE: citations?

Submitted by Scott F (not verified) on Tue Jun. 2, 2009 6:40 AM PDT.

The article is published in the June issue. Another summary article with slightly a more nuanced summary can be found here: http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news-1/Religious-devotion-does-not-...

in-depth coverage

Submitted by Taylor Wiles on Tue Jun. 2, 2009 10:09 AM PDT.

There was a New Yorker piece last fall on this issue. "Red Sex, Blue Sex," it was called. Here's the link: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/11/03/081103fa_fact_talbot

Texas' problems

Submitted by Allison (not verified) on Tue Jun. 2, 2009 4:11 PM PDT.

I'm not surprised. The area in which I live in doesn't teach sex education at all. By law, Texas teachers are supposed to teach it but there are no regulations to how long or how in depth the teachers have to go with their lessons. In the particular school district I live in now, most students graduating have had at the most one class period's worth of sex-ed...and its all abstinence only education. There is little to no information out there for teenage students. This problem is not just the private schools but it is also a problem for the public schools too.

Hypocrisy Issues

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed Jun. 3, 2009 9:29 AM PDT.

Two problems with declaring an issue of hypocrisy - one, you don't know that the young women getting the abortions held fast to those religious views. As a group there may be hypocrisy, but you can't properly use the term regarding a population as it has to do with individual actions.

Second issue - according to your perspective, in order for anyone to avoid hypocrisy they must not hold any moral values because it would be possible at some point to act in a way that violates that moral value. There is less need to avoid hypocrisy (which is only done to avoid such criticisms as handed out here) and more of a need for grace and forgiveness.

To struggle against a standard does not make the standard improper, it just makes us have to work to achieve that standard. You could easily use the issue of how we treat detainees one of those standards that we as a population struggle against. I think most here would agree that standard should not be lowered to avoid hypocrisy.