Virtuous virgins on wedding boom

<div class="section1"><div align="left" style="position:relative; left: -2"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" align="left" border="1" width="30.3%"> <colgroup> <col width="100.0%" /> </colgroup> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal"><img src="/photo/947048.cms" alt="/photo/947048.cms" border="0" /></div> </td> </tr> </table></div> <div class="Normal">LOS ANGELES: When Josie and Michael reach the altar next June, after spending £15,000 booking everything from the church to a European honeymoon, they fear they will feel "very old".Both will have just turned 22. <br /><br />After the ceremony, the Californian couple are likely to be eager to escape to their hotel; for they, like an increasing number of young Americans, have vowed to retain their chastity until they are married.<br /><br />The couple, who have dated since they were 17, are not unusual. <br /><br />As Americans discuss the "new morality" said to have helped George W Bush to win a second term, the US government’s statistical watchdogs have noticed a confluence of social and sexual trends that will warm the hearts of the Right.<br /> <br />Forthcoming reports from the National Vital Statistics System will highlight both an increase in teens who describe themselves as "religious" and the largest number of young women getting married since the dawn of the so-called permissive age. <br /><br />Up to 200,000 young women are expected to marry next year, about the same as in 1961 when all women tended to marry early. <br /><br />But as job opportunities opened up for young women and the pill changed sexual habits, more women delayed marriage until at least their mid-twenties. <br /><br />A report last month by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) showed the number of teenage pregnancies has fallen for the 12th consecutive year, with those among young teenagers now at their lowest since 1946. <br /><br />There are fierce arguments for the current fad for marrying young, as well as a mistrust of all official data: even the CDC warns that some of its statistics could turn out to be "blips" that might flip again next year. <br /><br />Yet Fay Menacker, of the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, doesn’t doubt the trend. "American women are behaving more responsibly than previous generations," she said. <br /><br />Pop star Britney Spears is the personification of such trends: four years ago she said she was staying a virgin until marriage. Many high school girls consequently took "the pledge" to do likewise. <br /><br />Britney may not have managed that, but now, at 23 and newly married, she says she wants to take time off to have children. <br /><br />Last week, starlet Lindsay Lohan, 18, said she wanted to marry soon. "I want to be a young mom," she said. "It''s better, healthier and more fun for the baby." (Sunday Times, London)<br /><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script></div> </div>