Non Marital Sex and the
Marriage Ecosystem

Non marital sex is harmful to the marriage ecosystem for a number of reasons:

• It shifts incentives for both men and women, often for different reasons
• It creates children who often lack the structure of the nuclear family
• It contributes to a higher divorce rate
• It leads to sexually transmitted diseases
• It can require the economic involvement of the state to support the children conceived and also to unwed mothers
• Other reasons we will discuss on these pages.

All of these effects can be linked to more negative effects, such as childrens' poor performance in school and lowered economic status for women. There are significant societal costs associated with sex outside of marriage, such as children being raised without fathers, medical treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, unwed mothers who become trapped economically, and childrens' poor or uncompleted education. The issue of non marital sex is closely tied with contraception, abortion, the sexual revolution, cohabitation, government policies regarding marriage and sex, multi partner fertility, and the economics of marriage.

At the Ruth Institute we want people to understand the full implications of all issues related to the marriage ecosystem. This serves two purposes:

1. It allows people to make fully informed choices about their own actions. For example, if more young women knew that they are creating economic uncertainty for themselves by engaging in sex outside of marriage, would at least a few of them want to improve their lives by opting out of it?
2. It helps people understand the sociological (aka large scale) implications of such actions. This, in turn, helps them to be more informed when discussing the issues with friends and family, and also when it’s time to vote. Accurate information helps everybody.

On these pages we will highlight articles from popular authors such as Ashley Crouch, Joanna Hyatt, Mary Rice Hansson, Caroline May, as well as many others.

Learn about Preserving the Ecosystem of Marriage.

Return to the home page: Non Marital Sex