"U.S. adolescents who pledge not to have sex until they are married have about the same rate of STD's as other teenagers and they often fail to keep their pledge, according to a study released on Tuesday. Adolescents who pledged abstinence were much less likely than others to use contraceptives the first time they had sex. The study of a nationally representative sample of about 15,000 youths aged 12 to 18 found that 88 percent of teenagers who pledged to remain virgins until they are married ended up having sex before marriage. (Reuters)" I say if you're not ready to keep a rubber handy, than you're probablly not ready for sex. You don't need a marriage license to figure that one out.