As training physicians who struggle daily with tragic societal effects of sexual promiscuity, we would like to express our support for the students of the Anscombe Society and their proposal for a Princeton Center for Abstinence and Chastity.
Disappointingly, the University has rejected these students’ request for the second time. These impressive, well-reasoned students have great insight into the damaging pressures toward sexual indiscretion that many of their peers are experiencing. Such a center could have a positive effect not just for Princeton students who are abstinent or committed to chastity, but for the campus community at large. Make no mistake: University administrators do Princeton students no favors by marginalizing and ignoring efforts to support abstinence and sexual discretion. Medical and social-science literature is filled with studies clearly demonstrating the damaging effects of non-monogamous sexual relationships and the “hookup” culture. Recently published studies in the Journal of Social Psychology and by the University of Texas demonstrated substantial regret (as high as 72 percent) among college students engaging in casual sexual behaviors — challenging popular assumptions that such behaviors are inconsequential for young adults. Commonly cited reasons for regret in the UT study included the decision being inconsistent with personal morals, feeling pressured by a partner, and desiring to wait until marriage to have sex.
In light of the weighty consequences of casual sex and promiscuity, including STDs, pregnancy, and emotionally bankrupting feelings of regret and guilt, shouldn’t the University show support for students’ more chaste aspirations — aspirations too often overlooked and inexcusably marginalized by our society as outdated and irrelevant? To ignore an opportunity to support such students, as the administration has done, is to ignore real problems in the current sexual culture and to disregard Princeton’s responsibility for the sexual and holistic well-being of its students.