—If the child is aborted the possibility of permanent sterility or other injury must not be forgotten.
—The probability that the illicit relationship may become known to members of your social group, if not to your parents.
—Probability that even though temporary relief from sexual tension is achieved you may suffer from feelings of shame, guilt, or remorse.
—Possibility that your future spouse may discover that you have had sexual relations with another person. It may prey on his or her mind despite the fact that he goes through with the marriage.
—The possibility that the intimacy is practiced under conditions so nerve-racking and undesirable that they cheapen the meaning of the act.
—The risk of venereal disease.
—The possibility—if you are a girl—that the relationship is exploitive. Perhaps the man is seeking his own satisfaction with little regard for the girl or her feelings.
After those warnings regarding complete intimacy are given we would like to make it clear that premarital kissing and petting do have a legitimate function. Recently a nurse trainee came to the Penn State clinic; she was overwrought. She said her current boy friend had laid his hand across her breast. Had she been prudish in becoming upset? She was assured that she hadn’t been. But she was urged not to let the incident drive her to aloofness. Frigidness can wreck one’s chances for a happy marriage just as surely as promiscuity.
It is entirely natural for a mutually attracted young couple to desire to caress each other. It is one of nature’s techniques for encouraging mating. Without it we would have fewer marriages—and children. It is harmful only when the attachment between the two people is completely sexual and they rush into an early marriage, or into intercourse without marriage.