Efforts to slow the rate of accidental pregnancies have stalled in the United States, but new government requirements that insurers pay for all birth control may help, researchers reported on Wednesday.
The report from the nonprofit Guttmacher Institute, which specializes in reproductive issues, found nearly half of all pregnancies in 2006 were unplanned and unintended. The rates grew the most among the poorest and least educated women, according to the study, to be published in the journal Contraception.
"Nearly half (49 percent) of pregnancies were unintended in 2006, up slightly from 2001 (48 percent). The unintended pregnancy rate increased to 52 per 1,000 women aged 15–44 years in 2006 from 50 in 2001," the report reads. Out of 6.7 million total pregnancies in 2006, 3.2 million were unplanned.
But fewer women got abortions – the rate fell from 47 percent of unwanted pregnancies in 2001 to 43 percent in 2006, Guttmacher’s Lawrence Finer and colleagues found.
“While the unintended pregnancy rate in the United States decreased between the late 1980s and mid 1990s, it stalled by 2001, the last year for which estimates are available,” they wrote. The new estimates show this hasn’t changed.
“The U.S. unintended pregnancy rate increased slightly between 2001 and 2006, a worrisome trend, and remains significantly higher than the rate in many other developed countries,” the report said.
“Efforts to help women and couples plan their pregnancies, such as increasing access to effective contraceptives, should focus on groups at greatest risk for unintended pregnancy, particularly poor and cohabiting women.”
Earlier this month, the Health and Human Services Department proposed requiring that all new health insurers completely cover women's health services such as birth control.
Long-acting contraceptive methods such as the intrauterine device could help, the report said. “Although these methods are highly cost-effective over time, even women with health insurance may have difficulty paying for these methods because some plans do not cover the high upfront costs or other charges women often incur to use them,” the report said.
“Research indicates that when financial barriers are completely removed and comprehensive information is provided on all methods, women choose long-acting, highly effective methods in large numbers.”
Other Guttmacher studies have shown that women who have unplanned pregnancies cost Medicaid more money than women who plan their pregnancies. One study in particular criticized attempts to close Planned Parenthood clinics in several states, including Kansas, Indiana, and North Carolina.
"Regardless of their motivation, moves that would cut family planning services are short-sighted, at best," Rachel Benson Gold wrote in one Guttmacher report released this summer. "If anything, difficult economic times such as these are precisely the most opportune moment to 'double down' and support programs and services that enable low-income women to avoid pregnancies they do not want to have."
Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood said the new HHS rules will help.
“Thanks to a recent decision by the Obama administration, we can look forward to progress in making birth control more affordable to more women,” Richards said in a statement.
“By expanding access to affordable birth control, we can create a healthier nation.”
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