What? I meant that only 25% or less of people who take the Pill
get pregnant! Erm. I think it's more. I can't remember the exact
success rate but I know it's one of the highest. Even the condom
can't match it. But that's according to my notes lar.
Know what's the safest way? Abstinence. 
NOV 23, 2003, The Straits
Times
Taking the pledge
Six thousand youths have sworn off pre-marital sex to 'save
themselves for marriage'
By Tan Tarn How
A PRO-VIRGINITY lobby group has since May last year convinced more
than 6,000 teenagers and young adults to pledge not to have
pre-marital sex, and now plans to hold an Abstinence Day and a
Purity March down Orchard Road on Valentine's Day next year.
Called Focus On Family, it is also organising a series of seminars
next week on preventing homosexuality and reforming
homosexuals.
Set up here in 2000, it is an offshoot of a worldwide United
States-based movement that promotes Christianity by preserving
traditional and family values.
Its most popular programme is the No Apologies workshop that tries
to get teenagers to remain virgins and 'save themselves for
marriage'.
The group's vice-president for programmes, Mrs Joanna Koh-Hoe, said
that about eight in 10 of the 8,000 attendees in the last 1 1/2
years have signed this abstinence pledge:
'Believing in saving myself for marriage, I make a commitment to
myself, my family, my friends, my future spouse and my future
children to be sexually abstinent from this day onward until the
day I enter a lifelong, committed, monogamous marriage.'
Students from 28 schools, including Raffles Girls' School,
Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) and East View Secondary, have
attended workshops, as have teens and adults from churches,
technical institutes and youth organisations. Convicted juveniles
under probation have also participated.
Said Mrs Koh-Hoe, 29: 'Our message is this: If I have pre-marital
sex, I am not a person of good character. In fact, any sex outside
of marriage is immoral whatever the age of the person.'
The four-hour workshop also warns participants of the health risks
of pre-marital sex and the unreliability of condoms.
Its funds have come mainly from the Ministry of Community
Development and Sports (MCDS) and the students' Edusave accounts.
But now, the ministry has decided to fund only non-school workshops
as the Education Ministry has a sex education programme called
Growing Years.
Meanwhile, Focus On Family hopes to spread the abstinence message
next year through its Feb 14 march in the city.
This week, it is holding seminars to show teachers and counsellors
how to stop people from 'becoming homosexual'.
It believes homosexuality is sinful; that homosexuals are made, not
born; and that they are not 'normal, healthy, everyday
people'.
Focus On Family is a registered charity whose mission is 'to
cooperate with the Holy Spirit in disseminating the Gospel of Jesus
Christ to as many people as possible, and, specifically, to
accomplish that objective by helping to preserve traditional values
and the institution of the family'.
It runs an hour-long radio programme on 93.8FM every Monday
promoting family values and also holds workshops on parenting and
marriage.
The charity has four full-time staff and is funded by fees from its
workshop, MCDS and donations. Its president is retiree Tan Thuan
Seng, 62, who owns the group's premises, a three-storey terrace
house in Niven Road near Selegie, that he is letting it use for
free.
Focus On Family has also trained workshop facilitators from the
Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis), one of whom said
that the group's values on pre-marital sex are the same as in
Islam.
Asked if people are pressured to sign the pledge, Mrs Koh-Hoe said:
'Sometimes, like when most want to sign and there is this poor kid
who doesn't.
'I remember one school where a few were quite adamant that they did
not want to be abstinent. It can work both ways, and we prefer to
use peer pressure to our advantage.'
Psychiatrist Ng Koon Hock said most people would agree that
guidance is good for teenagers who aren't mature enough to decide
what is best when it comes to sex. But convincing adults,
especially couples planning to get married, people already
cohabiting, or older singles, would be hard, he said.
