Pre-marital sex or fornication is somewhat of a common theme amongst teenagers in today's society. Despite the Catholic Church continuing to teach that sexual love between a man and a woman should be reserved for marriage, young people are still engaging in the act of pre-marital sex. The Catholic Church states that before a man and woman express their love as husband and wife, God should first bless them with the sacrament of marriage. "The sacrament of marriage signifies the vows freely exchanged between each other and thereby reflects the faithful, permanent, exclusive, and self-giving love they have promised to each other and to God" (Saunders, Pre-Marital Sex). Although pre-marital sex may seem harmless to some people, there often tends to be a downside for those people in the future. These downsides consist of abortion, venereal disease, an unwanted pregnancy, a ruined reputation, or a hurried marriage to the wrong person.
             AIDS, along with many other sexually transmitted diseases are rampant. "American teenagers are ripe targets for AIDS: they are experiencing 2.5 million cases of sexually transmitted disease every year and nearly 1,000,000 unintended pregnancies... at least 20 percent of today's AIDS patients were infected as teens" (Fletcher Brothers, 1). Despite these results from health studies, the youth of America still seems to find little or no problem with pre-marital sex. Abortion is one of the biggest problems we face in America today, and it often comes as a result of the ignorant actions of teenagers. Children are often taught when they are younger that the best way to stay away from these consequences of pre-marital sex is abstinence, until marriage. I feel that the idea of abstinence has faded and pre-marital sex has grown in popularity in today's society because of the media. Sex, or sexual intimation can be found nearly anywhere, from radio and televis
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