Free Birth Control Cuts Unwanted Pregnancies: Unwanted pregnancies plummeted compared with the national average after giving away birth control to women,
a new study found.
The St. Louis program, called The Contraceptive Choice Project, provided free birth
control to 9,256 women between the ages of 14 and 45 who were at risk for an unwanted pregnancy.
Most of
the women chose IUDs or implants, which have a higher successs rate than the pill (since you
have to remember to take that).
Both abortion rates and birth rates across the age spectrum dropped from 2008-2010 –
abortion rates as much as 78 percent from the national average and birth rates 81 percent from the
national average.
"Unintended pregnancy remains a major health problem in the United States, with higher proportions among
teenagers and women with less education and lower economic status," said lead author Jeff Peipert, MD,
PhD, the Robert J. Terry Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, in a press release. "The results of this
study demonstrate that we can reduce the rate of unintended pregnancy and this is key to reducing
abortions in this country."
The study was published in Obstetrics & Gynecology.
via EScience
