How Relationships Today Affect Success of Marriages Later

"A new study shows that the more relationships you've had prior to marriage, the less likely you'll have a good marriage," writes Mollie Hemingway, reporting on a new study from the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia.

She highlights findings in the study that point to the kinds of sound pre-marital decisions made today can improve our chances of marital quality and success. Read more in What You Do Before you Say 'I Do' Matters for Marriage Happiness.

How Contraception Became Proxy for Women's Freedom

"Contra Justice Ginsburg, the Hobby Lobby decision is no cause for alarm," writes Helen Alvaré. She argues that even though Ginsburg's voice doesn't represent many women, "her arguments still have power" (particularly in the marketplace of male-female relationships), and they can't go unchallenged.

For significant and entrenched reasons, birth control has become a proxy for “women’s freedom” in the minds of many women, even if they’re not actually touched by the Hobby Lobby decision.

A significant number of women have good reasons to be anxious about the possibility of becoming pregnant when they are not fully willing and prepared. This is largely due to the situation in the “marketplace” of male-female relationships and the lack of policies helping mothers manage work outside the home.

First, regarding this marketplace, today it fosters non-marital sex, cohabitation, later marriage, abortion, and single parenthood (and thus female poverty). These phenomena are disadvantageous to women, and in the minds of many, can be mitigated or avoided by contraception. The mechanisms by which these results are produced are brilliantly summarized by leading economists.