How effective is the pullout, really?

[jaggednib.livejournal.com]

 My boyfriend and I were having a discussion about the pullout method.  While I, personally, would never use the pullout method, my boyfriend told me that he thinks its an ignorant form of birth control.
My argument is that for consenting couples who make the informed decision to use the pullout method, all the power to them.
My boyfriend on the other hand thinks that "ignorant behaviour like that is the reason for so many unwanted pregnancies and STI's." 

I was always taught that the pullout method was NOT a viable form of birth control and that it was stupid to even try to tempt fate by using it. 
My boyfriend says that using this method is comparable to still believing that the world is flat. I told him that I'm pretty sure it's the other way around and that his outdated thinking is actually like saying the world is flat.

Since I've started reading this site, I've never heard of so many people using the pullout method before. Now I'm curious, are there are scientific facts/stats that you could link me to stating that what I've been taught in my earlier life might actually be wrong? 
I would love to have something to show my boyfriend that it's not as "dumb" as he thinks it is. 
I would even appreciate any anecdotes about people who have used only the pullout for X amount of months/years and never even had a pregnancy scare. 

Also, when does one actually pullout? Just before ejaculation? A while before ejaculation to prevent the precum from impregnating the woman?
I don't mean to offend anyone with these questions, I'm just curious where I could get more information because my boyfriend is quite adamant that this is the single most ridiculous method of birth control he's ever heard of and I'm not so sure I agree. 

Comments

[jaggednib.livejournal.com]

My question then becomes, what does it mean "when used perfectly,"?

[archangelbeth]

• When there's no sperm in the urethra for precum to wash out. (Urination is commonly believed to wash out the sperm, but this hasn't been studied.)
• When the guy pulls out before he ejaculates.
• When the guy pulls out before he leaks.

It's really simple in theory -- but it's all based on biology and that makes it non-simple in practice. Especially since guys can't feel it if they leak... (But I've tasted it twice with my spouse...)

I like condoms, and have great faith in them (18 years of marriage, no accidental pregnancies), but I would not like withdrawal. I don't want to have to have that much discipline in the sex! I don't want him to have to pull out, especially if I'm close, y'know? And I don't entirely trust that he'd be able to pull out before leakage -- unless it was way before ejaculation, and... That'd be no fun for me.

Other people, of course, have other preferences, and I shan't try to impose mine on them.

[calyxia.livejournal.com]

"shan't"
i just love it!