Friday, October 05, 2012

If We Really Want to Reduce the Abortion Rate, We Should Provide Reliable Contraception for Free

An exciting study from Washington University School of Medicine provided reliable birth control - intrauterine devices and hormone implants - for free to 9000 women, aged 14 - 45 for three years. The researchers tracked the effects on their abortion rate, and also on their teen pregnancy rate.

Nationally, women in this age range have about 19.6 abortions per 1000 - a huge number.

The women in this study: 4.4 to 7.5 abortions per 1000.  That is a huge improvement.

Moreover, teen girls (15 - 19) have a staggering 34.4 births per 1000 every year.

The girls in this study: 6.3 per 1000 annually.

Moreover, IUDs and hormone implants such as Norplant are cheaper than birth control pills.  They are also more reliable, since many women, especially the poorer and younger ones, don't usually take the pill every day - a problem that is solved by implanted methods. 

The implants, though, have a higher up-front cost, which tends to put off those same younger and poorer women from using them.  This is why providing them free was a crucial element of this study.

As someone who would like to dramatically reduce the abortion and teen pregnancy rates, I find this study to be very good news.

4 comments:

KySocialist91 said...

Terrific! Although I have no problem with any sort of abortion, contraception like this a great feat
for women's health

NSangoma said...

~

The anti-abortionists are also anti-birth control, the issue is sexual intercourse.

One is not to engage in sexual intercourse until one is married.

A bar (son) mitzvah is a 13-year old boy, a bat (daughter) mitzvah is 12-year old girl.

In ancient YS RA EL, a bar mitzvah and a bar mitzvah were considered adults and could get married and have marital sex.

Do you NegroeCon Negroes have the intellectual capability to extend my line of reasoning here?

This so-call Biblical feces does not apply to this modern world. That is unless we are going to start marrying our children off as soon as they physically mature enough to start feeling sexual urges.

`

Frank said...

What are the unintended consequences of our abortion and birth control practices?

Gruntled said...

Frank, that is a rich question with a long answer, the end of which no one knows. What we can know in the short run is that birth control is very widely available, abortion is pretty widely available, and neither of those things are likely to change. Therefore, using a good version of the former to reduce the incidence of the latter seems to me like a good idea.