Religious school grads likelier to have abortions

[The Spartan]

article

Religious school grads likelier to have abortions
New study examines faith’s role in deciding to terminate a pregnancy
LiveScience
updated 1:30 p.m. CT, Mon., June 1, 2009
The killing of an abortion provider on Sunday raises again the extreme potential consequences of the nation's schism on this topic. It's a tough issue to reconcile on a personal level too, and a new study on the effects of religiosity on the decision to have an abortion reveals more inconsistencies.

Unwed pregnant teens and 20-somethings who attend or have graduated from private religious schools are more likely to obtain abortions than their peers from public schools, according to research in the June issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

"This research suggests that young, unmarried women are confronted with a number of social, financial and health-related factors that can make it difficult for them to act according to religious values when deciding whether to keep or abort a pregnancy," said the study’s author, sociologist Amy Adamczyk of John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the Graduate Center, City University of New York.

(George Tiller, a 67-year-old physician who had long been targeted by anti-abortion activists, was shot and killed Sunday while attending church in Wichita, Kan.)

Adamczyk examined how personal religious involvement, schoolmate religious involvement and school type influenced the pregnancy decisions of a sample of 1,504 unmarried and never-divorced women age 26 and younger from 125 different schools. The women ranged in age from 14 to 26 at the time they discovered they were pregnant. Twenty-five percent of women in the sample reported having an abortion, a likely underestimate, Adamczyk said.

Results revealed no significant link between a young woman's reported decision to have an abortion and her personal religiosity, as defined by her religious involvement, frequency of prayer and perception of religion's importance. Adamczyk said that this may be partially explained by the evidence that personal religiosity delays the timing of first sex, thereby shortening the period of time in which religious women are sexually active outside of marriage.

Despite the absence of a link between personal religious devotion and abortion, religious affiliation did have some important influence. Adamczyk found that conservative Protestants (which includes evangelicals and fundamentalist Christians) were the least likely to report having an abortion, less likely than mainline Protestants, Catholics and women with non-Christian religious affiliations.

Regarding the impact of the religious involvement of a woman's peers, Adamczyk found no significant influence. However, Adamczyk did find that women who attended school with conservative Protestants were more likely to decide to have an extramarital baby in their 20s than in their teenage years.

"The values of conservative Protestant classmates seem to have an abortion limiting effect on women in their 20s, but not in their teens, presumably because the educational and economic costs of motherhood are reduced as young women grow older," Adamczyk said.

Despite Adamczyk's finding that rates of reported abortions were higher for young women educated at private religious schools, the type of religious school was not a factor: Catholic schools had similar rates as other religious schools.

"Religious school attendance is not necessarily indicative of conservative religious beliefs because students attend these schools for a variety of reasons," Adamczyk said. "These schools tend to generate high levels of commitment and strong social ties among their students and families, so abortion rates could be higher due to the potential for increased feelings of shame related to an extramarital birth."

Data for this study came from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), a three-wave school-based study of the health-related behaviors of students in grades 7 to 12 at the time of the first wave. Adamczyk analyzed data from the first and third waves of Add Health, the first wave taking place from 1994 to 1995 and the third wave being completed between 2001 and 2002. The Add Health program project was funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, along with several other agencies.

To be honest, I'm not really sure what to make of this, but it was a bizarre enough of a conclusion that I figured I should share with the class. Also, see the bolded bit in the article.

[Civil War Man]

I would suspect that private school attendees would be more likely to have abortions because public school kids probably have a lower rate of unwanted pregnancies, since they are more likely to have some form of sex education that includes contraception (not guaranteed, of course, but religious private schools are pretty much guaranteed to not have that, while public schools might).

That is just my personal completely unsupported speculation, though.

[Oskuro]

Around here, at least in recent years, girls attending private (Catholic) schools were more likely to have an abortion in the event of an unwanted pregnancy, but not because of morals, but because their parents had the money to pay for it (back in the day they had to go to the UK or France to legally do it). So, it was awfully hipocrital. Rich conservatives were all aganist abortion and for religious ideals, that is, until daddy's little girl got preggers and she had to be sneaked away for an abortion to save face.

I'd guess socioeconomic status, as well as education, have more of an influence on these matters than religious leanings.

[Nephtys]

Around here, at least in recent years, girls attending private (Catholic) schools were more likely to have an abortion in the event of an unwanted pregnancy, but not because of morals, but because their parents had the money to pay for it (back in the day they had to go to the UK or France to legally do it). So, it was awfully hipocrital. Rich conservatives were all aganist abortion and for religious ideals, that is, until daddy's little girl got preggers and she had to be sneaked away for an abortion to save face.

I'd guess socioeconomic status, as well as education, have more of an influence on these matters than religious leanings.

It's not really that. I went to a damned rich public school, with a damned rich protestant academy not too far away. The rate of teenage pregnancy was something around eight times at the religious school, which happened to be exceptionally and publicaly conservative, with rallies warning kids about the dangers facing our youth today. Things such as 'Black People in their neighborhoods', 'Music that didn't involve Jesus' or 'LAN Parties'.

[Oskuro]

<snip> with rallies warning kids about the dangers facing our youth today. Things such as 'Black People in their neighborhoods', 'Music that didn't involve Jesus' or 'LAN Parties'.

[Gil Hamilton]

<snip> with rallies warning kids about the dangers facing our youth today. Things such as 'Black People in their neighborhoods', 'Music that didn't involve Jesus' or 'LAN Parties'.

If you ever done the LAN Party thing, you should know the sheer amount of Sin that happens at one. Most LAN Parties (and Mario Parties) that I've been through devolve into something where everything goes on the table and nothing is sacred, becoming offensive to everyones race, creed, and personal life.

[Terralthra]

If you ever done the LAN Party thing, you should know the sheer amount of Sin that happens at one. Most LAN Parties (and Mario Parties) that I've been through devolve into something where everything goes on the table and nothing is sacred, becoming offensive to everyones race, creed, and personal life.

Really? At most of the ones I've been to, we just played SC or Quake until we all passed out around 3 PM on the second day.

[Twoyboy]

LAN parties are definitely evil... mostly because I never get invited to them anymore.

On topic, when I read the main conclusion of this study I thought it was obvious. Since being a single parent is a big no-no in these religions many girls would rather opt for the secret abortion compared to trying to be a single parent (and possibly being disowned by family) or being "forced" to marry the father. I'm sure there's plenty of other factors involved, but the result comes as no big surprise to me really.

[Nephtys]

LAN parties are definitely evil... mostly because I never get invited to them anymore.

On topic, when I read the main conclusion of this study I thought it was obvious. Since being a single parent is a big no-no in these religions many girls would rather opt for the secret abortion compared to trying to be a single parent (and possibly being disowned by family) or being "forced" to marry the father. I'm sure there's plenty of other factors involved, but the result comes as no big surprise to me really.

I don't even think it's that. The teen pregnancy rate is far higher at the anecdotal religious school when weighted against the comparable public school as well. It would be interesting to see if there's correlation for that.

[Intio]

Identifying an 'evil act' is so much easier when you are protesting the abstract of someone else doing it. When you are in the same situation, then it's time to 'consider all the options'.

[Mayabird]

Well yeah. They're much less likely to use contraception but nothing stops people from having sex (and in fact, abstinence only sex ed, which they're far more likely to get than real sex ed, makes people more likely to have sex, somehow, but with greatly reduced contraceptive use) but the pregnancies are still unwanted.

It's like I've said many times. If people actually wanted to reduce the number of abortions instead of just getting brownie points from Jesus, they'd push contraceptive use a lot harder to prevent unwanted pregnancies in the first place. This is just another case in point.

[Uraniun235]

If you ever done the LAN Party thing, you should know the sheer amount of Sin that happens at one. Most LAN Parties (and Mario Parties) that I've been through devolve into something where everything goes on the table and nothing is sacred, becoming offensive to everyones race, creed, and personal life.

Really? At most of the ones I've been to, we just played SC or Quake until we all passed out around 3 PM on the second day.

The ones that my friends and I did often included file sharing, which inevitably included pornography. (We called them 'good deals'. "I've got some good deals for you shared now!")

[Prannon]

Well yeah. They're much less likely to use contraception but nothing stops people from having sex (and in fact, abstinence only sex ed, which they're far more likely to get than real sex ed, makes people more likely to have sex, somehow, but with greatly reduced contraceptive use) but the pregnancies are still unwanted.

It's like I've said many times. If people actually wanted to reduce the number of abortions instead of just getting brownie points from Jesus, they'd push contraceptive use a lot harder to prevent unwanted pregnancies in the first place. This is just another case in point.

Ahh, but you see, among the religious the whole idea is to discourage having sex in the first place. Unwanted pregnancies are a horrible symptom of even greater moral depravity: sexual immorality (premarital sex, adultery, and other things that they saw in the 1960s that scared them). To encourage greater contraception use would be giving up on fighting the whole "kids are gonna have sex anyway, so why fight it?" argument. So no, abstinence is the way to go against pragmatic sense.

Aside from creating even more unwanted pregnancies like you mentioned, it also creates some relationally and sexually immature young people, myself being one of them even though I've rejected a lot of my upbringing. I'll just leave it at that.

[Samuel]

If you ever done the LAN Party thing, you should know the sheer amount of Sin that happens at one. Most LAN Parties (and Mario Parties) that I've been through devolve into something where everything goes on the table and nothing is sacred, becoming offensive to everyones race, creed, and personal life.

Really? At most of the ones I've been to, we just played SC or Quake until we all passed out around 3 PM on the second day.

The ones that my friends and I did often included file sharing, which inevitably included pornography. (We called them 'good deals'. "I've got some good deals for you shared now!")

I never understood the urge to share pornography. Why would anyone want anyone else to know what they are turned on by? Is it some sort of social thing to show that you all have similar interests? Is it like "gotta collect them all"?

[Darth Wong]

The ones that my friends and I did often included file sharing, which inevitably included pornography. (We called them 'good deals'. "I've got some good deals for you shared now!")

Heh. I have more than 500GB of porn, all vetted for quality. But I didn't need LAN parties to accumulate it

I never understood the urge to share pornography. Why would anyone want anyone else to know what they are turned on by? Is it some sort of social thing to show that you all have similar interests? Is it like "gotta collect them all"?

It's interesting that you assume people want to share pornography for some kind of buried psychological reason, and not just because they want to be generous: the principal reason for sharing as a social practice.

[Samuel]

It's interesting that you assume people want to share pornography for some kind of buried psychological reason, and not just because they want to be generous: the principal reason for sharing as a social practice.

Probably my mind screwed on wrong. Of course I'm assuming internet porn which you could just give out links over e-mail. I guess there is other computer based forms that I don't know about.

[Terralthra]

Presumably large collections of images and/or movie files which have been obtained from pay sites or DVD rips. They'd be very conducive to sharing over a local network due to file size.

[Saxtonite]

Things such as 'Black People in their neighborhoods', 'Music that didn't involve Jesus' or 'LAN Parties'.

I'm interested. What was that about

I never understood the urge to share pornography. Why would anyone want anyone else to know what they are turned on by?

The same reason people post (other) information on them on their forum profiles/social networking pages. I've seen people post their specific "fetishes" on their deviantart accounts, (even when they don't draw that type of art/make it known otherwise). In many cases people are 'open' enough to write it down blatantly and the surrounding environment is friendly/tolerant enough not to care (especially on some parts of the internet where people tend to have a 'live and let live' mentality or not even care)

Is it some sort of social thing to show that you all have similar interests? Is it like "gotta collect them all"?

Both of those are reasons why people share files they get off the net or IRL scanning of pictures. They reaffirm friendships and give more info on your friends (even in well-known friends) and it's to see what others have as you may not have been on that part of the internet or been online at a certain time when they were, and vice-versa.

Also see Darth Wong saying you share it to be nice/generous (why people seed torrents or allow people to upload on other P2P networks).

Presumably large collections of images and/or movie files which have been obtained from pay sites or DVD rips. They'd be very conducive to sharing over a local network due to file size.

Also re. porn, people exchange and share hentai doujins and various H-Games and related stuff (as in more obscure things-so it's harder to find unless you do a request for it on a site and even that might not work. Alternatively scouring those sites could do it, or doing a rapidshare search). Or western style art (Slavic/Russian or American artists). Animated, CGI and "real life" Often it's imported, so there are groups who translate it all. In some cases they have a dedicated site where they upload it. Alternatively, they upload the files to imageboards which is also popular. IIRC some people also use irc channels.

EDIT: Oh, depending on the groups people give out passes to those sites they cracked/hacked as well. Apparently it's not too popular as those sites can keep making money to be viable as commerial though.

Also, some people may not have porn of their own (some people would pay people to fill their harddrives with porn, bootlegers and all).

Probably my mind screwed on wrong. Of course I'm assuming internet porn which you could just give out links over e-mail.

Some people like doing things IRL. Also you can't send all the stuff you have over e-mail. Even large PPT presentations have problems being sent over emaill and some forums move so fast they won't be on the site by the time you get the e-mail or whatnot days later. They could use smaller ones.

It's simply simpler for them to look through what they have IRL by looking at each other files and whatnot. This applies for more than porn, but esoteric games, funny pictures, WINRARs full of E-books, skiddie tools, music, anything like that.

I guess there is other computer based forms that I don't know about.

h-games and the like. oh, and IRL text roleplaying.

also, In some parts of the internet it's not a good idea to give out links as the site it's hosted on (rapidshare, maybe) might delete the file due to TOS. Or they're afraid of being reported to their ISP for whatever reason. They may host it on a smaller imageboard instead.

[Civil War Man]

Things such as 'Black People in their neighborhoods', 'Music that didn't involve Jesus' or 'LAN Parties'.

I'm interested. What was that about

A lot of surburbs are very homogenous. Gated communities in particular could have a lot of xenophobia and racism bubbling beneath the surface (and, in this case, bubbling to the top).

If you run under the premise that inner cities have a lot of crime, and inner cities have a predominantly minority population, so minorities moving in to your neighborhood would mean they would bring crime with them. Minority mostly means black, but it can vary in certain regions (for example, the West coast had that same mentality regarding Asians for a long time, and in some areas probably still does).