I’m going to reach back to an older source. Take this however you will:
That which has been, shall be; and that which is done, shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Ecclesiates 1:9 
This thread reminds me of the character Marty McFly’s mom in the movie Back to the Future… she was portrayed as wanting sex, and that really shocked audiences. (Me included.)
I guess the older ladies and gentlemen recognized that character as being realistic of what teens did back then, though they themselves have kept fairly quiet about it. Do y’all think the shock value of the movie is because modern perceptions of life back then comes mostly from television and movie shows produced at the time?
I wonder if people typing on the SDMB in the year 2023 will be asking the same question about life in the 1970’s or 80’s? Movies and television produced then also do not often discuss teen sex seriously. (Maybe because it’s really not an entertaining topic.)
-k
I specifically addressed that, when I pointed out (in the original thread) that there were some states that had already legalized abortion. In other words, your objection supports statements that I had already.
Besides, the point remains – abortion was far less accessible back in the 1950’s. Hence, the objection “people had abortions back then too” is overly simplistic, and displays a lack of attention to vital details.
Note that Planned Parenthood did not cite any source for those numbers. I’m asking for hard statistics, not figures which are pulled out of thin air.
In fact, as Dr. Francis Beckwith points out, there is simply no reliable evidence for the claims of over a million illegal abortions per year. An average of 98,000 per year in the 1950’s is far more likely.
If I had actually made such a claim, you would be correct. Since I said no such thing though, you objection has no bearing.
What I said is that there are fewer women of childbearing age nowadays – possibly due to the legalization of abortion. This could be one reason why the abortion rate has declined, but I did not claim that it was THE reason, and I most certainly did not say that “fewer births among teens necessarily equals more abortions among teens.”
In fact, I said nothing which even remotely resembles that claim. I can only wonder where you pulled that from.
We know that:
[ul]
[li]More teens had babies in the '40s and '50s then now.[/li][li]Even though it was illegal in many states, abortion was not uncommon at all (couple that with the higher birth rate and you’ve got plenty of pregnant teens)[/li][li]Teenagers married at a much higher rate in the '50s than at any other time since.[/ul][/li]
And yet all this is not enough to convince some that teenage sexual activity in the '40s and '50s is comparible to teens today. What evidence, besides nostalgic rememberances, does anyone have that teens are having more sex now than before?
Solomon had an iPod?
Actually, I posted a PP link in the other thread that does cite the numbers:
Teen birth rates are really not the best way to determine sexual promiscuity, for various reasons. Many of those reasons are debated above. The other variable to consider that has not been mentioned is the fact that the average onset of menses has slowly crept lower and lower over the last 50 years. When this is combined with the fact that the average age to get married has gone higher and higher, you have an ever widening time period that is being created where pregaecies or births out of wedlock can occur.
I personally don't think teens now or much more or less sexually active than in the 50's. I think teens who are active are more careful now. If you compare say 1900 to 2000, though, yes, unmarried teens are probably now more active now than then, but it would be tough to prove because I doubt you would find any statisitics on it from that time period.