Not tonight boys; how Papal visits could leave Italian men out of luck for more than a year

A visit by the Pope can renew sufficient religious observance among Italian women to withhold sex from their partners for more than a year afterwards, a new University of Sussex study shows. Papal visits to Italian provinces lead to a subsequent decrease in abortions of up to 20% with its impact felt for up to 14 months after, new research by economists Dr Vikram Pathania and Dr Egidio Farina has revealed. As the drop in abortions produced no significant increase in recorded births, researchers believe the most likely explanation is a reduced need for abortions as the Pope's words inspire local women to heightened observation of Catholic doctrine and avoidance of non-procreational sexual intercourse. Dr Farina, now a research fellow at Queen's University Belfast, said: "The research finds a decrease in the number of abortions starting from the third month until the fourteenth month after the visit of a Pope. "The decrease in abortions seems to be driven predominantly by a reduction in unintended pregnancies as women choose abstinence, increase their use of contraception or a combination of both, after a visit. "While use of contraception is also contrary to Catholic teaching, it may be viewed by women as the lesser of two evils when compared to abortion. "Our research shows the very real impact that religious values can have in shaping people's most intimate socio-economic behaviour." The researchers investigated the links between regional abortion rates at the time of 129 official visits made to 85 Italian provinces by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI between 1979 and 2012, in a paper published in the Journal of Population Economics today.