Both strategies have been found to reduce the incidence of premature and unprotected intercourse. When tried experimentally in this country, these strategies have had the same salutary effect. The result is that only one out of five adolescents use contraception every time they engage in sex. Those who lose are faced with an unintended pregnancy or a sexually transmitted disease or both. About 29,000 Georgia teens become pregnant each year.
Society bears a moral burden as well.
A 1995 national public opinion poll revealed that 87 percent of American adults feel that something is fundamentally wrong with the country's moral condition. In their minds, the most salient symptom of moral decay is teen-age pregnancy, a consequence of premature sex unaccompanied by commitment. While many of these marriages did not last, the subsequent divorce and rearing of children by only one parent were not viewed as morally decadent as unwed childbearing. Today pregnant teens are far less likely to marry, even though unwed childbearing is still viewed with alarm by many in our society. As our society becomes more reliant on higher education and technical training to establish economic independence, the interruption of education by unintended pregnancy carries a harsher life penalty as well.