Later, Reagan says, “Girls termed "sexually active” -- and that has replaced the word “promiscuous”-- are given help in order to prevent illegitimate births or abortion.” (paragraph 16) Because Reagan is throwing in a thought of his, he is using the device of Parenthesis. Parenthesis is a word, clause, or sentence inserted as an explanation or afterthought into a passage that is grammatically complete without it, in writing usually marked off by curved brackets, dashes, or commas. He does this by simply throwing in a short phrase in the middle of his sentence to say that, as a country, we don’t look at sex as something moral. So, as we change our opinion on a matter, we will often change the word to make something immoral seem more politically
