A growing number of couples are heeding the message that condoms help prevent the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases — a shift that’s paying off in more ways than one: Between 1997 and 2008, unintended pregnancies dropped 16 percent and the abortion rate dropped 11 percent, according to a study by the Alan Guttmacher Institute. The biggest jump in condom use occurred among women in their twenties; about 23 percent now use them, up from about only 14 percent in 1998. (Among 15- to 19-year-olds, 30 percent use condoms, compared with 27 percent in 1988.)
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Another reason for the downturn in unwanted pregnancies and abortions may be that younger women — who are more apt to err with contraception — are beginning to turn to more goof-proof methods such as injectables (Depo-Provera) and hormonal implants (Norplant). Ten percent of 15 to 24-year-olds now rely on these new forms of birth control.
Still, nearly half of all pregnancies in this country are accidents; every night, approximately 1.6 million American couples who don’t want to conceive risk an unwanted pregnancy by foregoing contraception or relying on a method with a high failure rate, such as withdrawal or spermicides.
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More startling facts:
48 percent of women ages 15 to 44 have had at least one unplanned pregnancy.
28 percent have had one or more unwanted births.
30 percent have had one or more abortions.
11 percent have had one or more unwanted births and one or more abortions.
At current rates, 43 percent of American women will have had an abortion by age 45.
Notes study author Stanley K. Henshaw, Ph.D.: “We need to improve access to birth control and dispel the myth that the IUD and hormonal contraceptives are unhealthy. We also need to make people more aware of emergency contraception to prevent pregnancy after unprotected sex.”