It’s worth keeping in mind that there are two different metrics by which we can measure the efficacy of a public birth control strategy:
How many births to unwed mothers are prevented by our strategy?
How many unintended pregnancies are prevented by our strategy?
The best metric to use depends on our goal.
Abstinence-only education was part of a moderately successful system to reduce the number of unwed mothers. Why was this system successful? Because the other part of the system was to either
pressure such unwed pregnant women to marry the fathers of their children
or take their kids away.
Thus, under the first metric, this system worked well. Under the second metric, the system was less successful, and most of the success was probably due to women not wanting to get trapped in crappy marriages, and not the abstinence-only education part.
Comments 2
- How many births to unwed mothers are prevented by our strategy?
- How many unintended pregnancies are prevented by our strategy?
The best metric to use depends on our goal.Abstinence-only education was part of a moderately successful system to reduce the number of unwed mothers. Why was this system successful? Because the other part of the system was to either
- pressure such unwed pregnant women to marry the fathers of their children
- or take their kids away.
Thus, under the first metric, this system worked well. Under the second metric, the system was less successful, and most of the success was probably due to women not wanting to get trapped in crappy marriages, and not the abstinence-only education part.Reply
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