Half Of Pregnancies In U.S. Are "Unintended"

About a week ago, Rhode Island Rep. Edith H. Ajello and State Sen. Rhoda A. Perry wrote a commentary for the Providence Journal on preventive medicine, including reproductive healthcare. In that article they made the claim that nearly half of all pregnancies in the United States are unintended. That was a pretty shocking claim, and I think most people, including myself, would find it hard to believe. The folks over at PolitiFact also found it hard to believe, so they decided to do some checking and find out if it could possibly be true.

They found two studies on the subject done by the Guttmacher Institute. The first compared statistics from 2001 with statistics from 1994. The second was published in 2011, but was derived from 2006 statistics. Figures for all three years were taken from Center for Disease Control (CDC) studies. The studies showed a remarkable consistency. They showed that 49% of all the pregnancies in 1994, 2001, and 2006 were unintended (or unwanted).

And since this statistic was so consistent from 1994 through 2006, there is little doubt that it is probably true in 2011 also -- especially in light of the fact that right-wing fundamentalists have prohibited the teaching of anything but "abstinence only" in our schools for the last few years. They seem to think that refusing to teach young people about contraception will somehow keep them from having sex.

That, of course, is a ridiculous assumption and several studies have shown that "abstinence only" education simply does not work. Sex is a natural bodily function like eating, and asking people to not have sex, even young people, makes about as much sense as asking people not to eat. But that does not mean unintended pregnancies could not be prevented. There are numerous safe and very effective methods of contraception. And a massive public information campaign, coupled with easy (or even free) access to those methods, could significantly reduce the number of unintended pregnancies.

One would think that those who are opposed to legal abortion would be in favor of educating people about contraceptives and providing easy access to them, but that is not true. It seems that many of the same people who oppose legal abortion are also opposed to preventing unintended pregnancies. That makes no sense to me. Preventing unintended pregnancies is the best (and probably only) way to prevent abortions.

We need to make a choice in this country. Do we want to continue having a massive amount of unintended pregnancies -- about 3.2 million in 2006 out of 6.7 million total pregnancies -- or do we want to stop them. And abortion is not the only negative consequence of unintended pregnancies. These pregnancies are associated with "a number of adverse maternal behaviors and child health outcomes, including inadequate or delayed initiation of prenatal care, smoking and drinking during pregnancy, premature birth and lack of breastfeeding, as well as negative physical and mental health effects on children".

We could do a lot better in this country, and it's time we started doing it.