The Wakata County School District has been looking for ways to reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies that occur each year among students in the district. Their approach is explicitly utilitarian, with the superintendent even stating, "We're pretty open-minded at this point. Whatever works, whatever stands a good chance of succeeding, we're willing to give it a try."

One local parent has suggested encouraging (though not requiring) students to publicly take a pledge to remain virgins until marriage. In response, a school board member noted a 2008 study that showed that teenagers who take such pledges are just as likely to have premarital sex as those who do not promise abstinence, and they are significantly less likely to use condoms and other forms of birth control when they do.

Would this proposal be an appropriate approach for the school district and its utilitarian goals?