Birth control

Abstract: OBJECTIVE: This report presents national estimates of contraceptive use and method choice based on the 1982, 1995, 2002, and 2006-2008 National Surveys of Family Growth (NSFG). METHODS: Data for 2006-2008 were collected through in-person interviews with 13,495 men and women 15-44 years of age in the household population of the United States. This report is based on the sample of 7,356 women interviewed in 2006-2008. The response rate for women in the 2006-2008 survey was about 76%. RESULTS: More than 99% of women 15-44 years of age who have ever had sexual intercourse with a male (referred to as "sexually experienced women") have used at least one contraceptive method. The percentage of women who have ever used emergency contraception, the contraceptive patch, and the contraceptive ring increased between 2002 and 2006-2008. Looking at contraceptive use in the month of interview, or current use, the leading method of contraception in the United States during 2006-2008 was the oral contraceptive pill, used by 10.7 million women; the second leading method was female sterilization, used by 10.3 million women. While contraceptive use is virtually universal in the United States, women with different characteristics make different choices of methods--for example, college educated women are much more likely to use the pill and less likely to use female sterilization than less educated women. Age, parity, marital status, and income are also closely related to the choice of method. These method choices are related to the risk of unintended pregnancy in these groups.

Abstract: This report concerns unintended pregnancy and its consequences in the United States and represents the collaborative efforts of several groups and individuals. It notes that an estimated 57% of all U.S. pregnancies are unintended and that women of all ages not just adolescents are affected. The book "offers specific recommendations to put the United States on par with other developed nations in terms of unintended pregnancy rates; considers the effectiveness of over 20 pregnancy prevention programs; explores problematic definitions--unintended versus unwanted versus mistimed--and presents data on pregnancy rates and trends; summarizes the health and social consequences of unintended pregnancies for both men and women and for the children they bear; examines Americans ambivalence about sexuality and the many other social cultural religious and economic factors that affect our approach to contraception; [and] explores the complicated web of peer pressure life aspirations and notions of romance that shape an individuals decisions about sex contraception and pregnancy." (EXCERPT)

Abstract: Objective: To review the effectiveness of primary prevention strategies aimed at delaying sexual intercourse, improving use of birth control, and reducing incidence of unintended pregnancy in adolescents. Data sources: 12 electronic bibliographic databases, 10 key journals, citations of relevant articles, and contact with authors. Study selection: 26 trials described in 22 published and unpublished reports that randomised adolescents to an intervention or a control group (alternate intervention or nothing). Data extraction: Two independent reviewers assessed methodological quality and abstracted data. Data synthesis: The interventions did not delay initiation of sexual intercourse in young women (pooled odds ratio 1.12; 95% confidence interval 0.96 to 1.30) or young men (0.99; 0.84 to 1.16); did not improve use of birth control by young women at every intercourse (0.95; 0.69 to 1.30) or at last intercourse (1.05; 0.50 to 2.19) or by young men at every intercourse (0.90; 0.70 to 1.16) or at last intercourse (1.25; 0.99 to 1.59); and did not reduce pregnancy rates in young women (1.04; 0.78 to 1.40). Four abstinence programmes and one school based sex education programme were associated with an increase in number of pregnancies among partners of young male participants (1.54; 1.03 to 2.29). There were significantly fewer pregnancies in young women who received a multifaceted programme (0.41; 0.20 to 0.83), though baseline differences in this study favoured the intervention. Conclusions: Primary prevention strategies evaluated to date do not delay the initiation of sexual intercourse, improve use of birth control among young men and women, or reduce the number of pregnancies in young women.

Abstract: This paper relates the erosion of the custom of shotgun marriage to the legalization of abortion and the increased availability of contraception to unmarried women in the United States. The decline in shotgun marriage accounts for a significant fraction of the increase in out-of-wedlock first births. Several models illustrate the analogy between women who do not adopt either birth control or abortion and the hand-loom weavers both victims of changing technology. Mechanisms causing female immiseration are modeled and historically described. This technology-shock hypothesis is an alternative to welfare and job-shortage theories of the feminization of poverty. (EXCERPT)