Various social and religious groups promote virginity pledges. Leading supporters of the pledges include True Love Waits, which is sponsored by the Southern Baptist Convention, and the Silver Ring Thing. Both run national programmes in the USA encouraging virginity pledges. Advocacy of virginity pledges is often coupled with support for abstinence-only sexual education in public schools. Advocates propose that any other type of sexual education would promote what they hold to be immoral and risky behaviour — that is, sex outside marriage. Advocates of virginity pledges argue that they are an effective tool in combating sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and teenage pregnancy. Supporters claim that pledgers are 40% less likely to have children outside marriage and claim that abstinence education (without focus on contraception) is consistent with the values of parents in the USA.
Since True Love Waits began in 1993, more than 2.4 million teenagers have signed their pledge card and made a commitment to save sex for marriage. The True Love Waits pledge asserts: ‘Believing that true love waits, I make a commitment to God, myself, my family, those I date, and my future mate to be sexually pure until the day I enter marriage.’
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