A recent Center for Disease Control and Prevention study of teen sex habits and attitudes revealed many thought-provoking trends and interesting statistics.
The finding that seems to be getting the most headline coverage, though, is that more teens report using the “rhythm method” to avoid pregnancy:
About 17 percent of sexually experienced teen girls say they had used the rhythm method - timing their sex to avoid fertile days to prevent getting pregnant. That’s up from 11 percent in 2002.
While I usually cringe at the secular media’s stubborn clinging to the ancient term “rhythm method” to describe methods of fertility awareness, I think this might be a case where the term actually applies.
The “rhythm method” refers to the outdated practice of using a calendar and a history of regular cycles to predict a woman’s most likely fertile days on which to avoid intercourse. It’s not very scientific and not very effective.
Methods of Natural Family Planning, however, use the most updated technologies to read signs of fertility in a day by day, forward-looking way. As they do not depend upon regular cycles or calendar “predictions,” they are very scientific and (when used correctly) very effective.
The report’s authors are quick to make a link between teens’ use of the “rhythm method” and an increase in teen pregnancy rates:
They may have been using another form of birth control at the same time. But the increase is considered worrisome because the rhythm method doesn’t work about 25 percent of the time, said Joyce Abma, the report’s lead author ... The increase in the rhythm method may be part of the explanation for recent trends in the teen birth rate. The teen birth rate declined steadily from 1991 through 2005, but rose from 2005 to 2007.
I think it’s extremely unlikely that many of the teens who report use of the “rhythm method” to avoid pregnancy are taking their temperatures or studying NaproTechnology, so I’ll let the CDC call their methods of fertility awareness unreliable.
A more likely factor in the increased rates of teen pregnancy, however, is a shift in teen attitudes toward premarital parenthood:
Nearly 64 percent of teen boys said it’s OK for an unmarried female to have a child, up from 50 percent in 2002. More than 70 percent of teen girls agreed, up from 65 percent, though the female increase was not statistically significant.
Here’s where we see the consequences of years of the popular culture’s perversion of truth about sex, marriage, and family. If high school parenthood is generally considered an acceptable thing, the effectiveness rates of teens’ favored methods of preventing pregnancy don’t matter very much at all.
I only hope that the rising numbers of teens using the “rhythm method” indicates an increased awareness of the truth about human reproduction in general and will make it less likely that all those teen pregnancies will result in abortion.
Comments
Post a Comment
I too hope that young secularists are valuing life more. Regarding NFP, I digress. I think it is important to state that it would be serious matter to employ the technique if one did not have a truly serous reason to do so. In other words, NFP is not an alternative to chemical contraception or a more scientific way to use the rhythm method. The primary obligation, regarding the conjugal act, is to be open to life. If a married couple does not have a serious reason to use NFP or Napro, then these measures become contraceptive. A point that is largely missed in our attempt to find alternative suggestions to chemical contraception for our young secularist brethren.
I saw that article too and wanted more data about what it is that teens are actually doing that is being called the “rhythm method”. Like you, Danielle, I suspect it isn’t NFP; but I’d really be curious about what kind of information they are using.
Good analysis, Danielle. I’d have to add that, all moral questions aside, at least it’s better for their bodies than chemical contraception.
I have to agree with Timothy O’Rourke’s observation. Also, even if these teens were using the real NFP, it is still wrong for them to be doing so. NFP should only be used for grave reasons in a Marriage.
At first I thought this article was going to be about how playing excessive amounts of “Dance, Dance Revolution” can drive away the opposite sex, but sadly, no.
Anna P., the sin here is the fornication, not the use of NFP. Check out Humanae Vitae on the Vatican website, where it states that the use of NFP to space births is licit for WELL GROUNDED reason, not grave.
Yes NFP and all sexual activity should be within marriage. These girls are fornicating with boy friends or casual acquaintences and using the old rhythm method. Some may say if they have to have pre-marital sex with no chance of marrying the boy better to use barrier contraception. It is well known that female libido is generally highest at or around ovulation and therefore some of these sexualized young hucchies are simply going to fail at this.
But maybe, just maybe these girls may be trying to get their boy friends to take a deeper more meaningful interest in them? Who is to say?
I suspect that what’s probably taking place is anal sex, but that teens are too ashamed to admit to it.
It’s very likely that these girls are trying to get their boyfriends to take a deeper, more meaningful interest. I seriously doubt that every single sexually active teenager is just out for a night of fun.
When I was in high school, long ago now, I recall that withdrawal was very popular, as well as “I just know when I’m going to ovulate.” I suspect this is what they mean.
I think that they are calculating by the biology textbook, which will say that ovulation occurs for most women at about 14 days into their cycle. I remember reading this when I was in college and it was NOT connected to Church teaching on NFP which does teach the differences in women’s temperature, mucus flow, variations according to sickness, etc.
I think it is unfortunate that what these teens are doing is named the “rhythm method” which brings to mind the pre-Vatican II unscientific method of spacing births for Catholics that so many people today confuse with NFP.
Re Timmothy O’Rourke: Regardless of whether the reasons are sufficient, and no outsider can judge that, a married couple’s use of NFP is NOT the same as Contraception. It may be a sin of lack of generosity and submission to God’s will, but it is not the sin of Contraception, as they are doing nothing to stop conception. There is a huge difference between trying to avoid something and positively doing something to keep it from occurring. I disagree with your assessment that not enough emphasis is placed on needing a serious reason. In my experience as a NFP instructor and Catholic in the pew, albeit in a strongly orthodox parish, the bigger problem is people acting like you have to have one foot in the grave before it is permissible. I also don’t see that this issue is terribly pertinent to the article as we are talking about unmarried teens who are already committing sin in fornicating. The question of sufficient reason is moot. For them, it is a mortal sin whether the act occurs in the fertile time or not.
Post a Comment
By submitting this form, you give The National Catholic Register permission to publish this comment. Comments will be published at our discretion, and may be edited for clarity and length. For best formatting, please limit your response to one paragraph and don't hit "enter" to force line breaks.