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Wednesday, Mar 13, 2013 8:30 PM UTC

FRC: Functioning societies “punish” premarital sex

Pat Fagan of the Family Research Council says "societies have always forbidden" premarital sex

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Topics: Family research council, Gay Marriage, Pat Fagan, Sex, Contraception, Tony Perkins,

FRC: Functioning societies Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council (Credit: Wikipedia/Gage Skidmore)

Pat Fagan, a senior fellow at the social conservative Family Research Council, is still troubled by a 1972 Supreme Court ruling that overturned a ban on giving contraceptives to single people, because it essentially gave “young people have the right to engage in sex outside of marriage,” and “functioning societies don’t do that, they stop it, they punish it, they corral people, they shame people, they do whatever.”

Brian Tashman of Right Wing Watch reports:

[Fagan] appeared alongside Tony Perkins, the head of FRC, on Washington Watch yesterday to discuss his article which claims that Eisenstadt v. Baird, the 1972 case that overturned a Massachusetts law banning the distribution of contraceptives to unmarried people, may rank “as the single most destructive decision in the history of the Court.”

“Functional societies foster chastity and sanction its violation,” Fagan writes. “But in Eisenstadt, the Supreme Court threw chastity out the window by endorsing premarital sex at a constitutional level.”

“The court decided that single people have the right to contraceptives,” Fagan elaborated on the radio show. “What’s that got to do with marriage? Everything, because what the Supreme Court essentially said is single people have the right to engage in sexual intercourse. Well, societies have always forbidden that, there were laws against it.”

Jillian Rayfield is an Assistant News Editor for Salon, focusing on politics. Follow her on Twitter at @jillrayfield or email her at jrayfield@salon.com. More Jillian Rayfield.

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