An article yesterday in the Wall Street Journal surveying the contraceptive landscape 50 years after the birth of “the pill” finds that 70 percent of pregnancies among unmarried women in their 20s were unintended, and among all U.S. women half of pregnancies were unplanned. This is a contraceptive revolution gone bust. The article says that many of these accidental pregnancies are the result of “contraceptive failures,” and then goes on to clarify that the contraceptives aren’t failing, people are failing to use them. There is a new generation of contraceptives: IUDs, rings, patches which can provide weeks, months, or years of protection-at 99 percent effectiveness-without interfering with spontaneity. If people want STD protection, condoms, used properly, have a 98 percent effectiveness rate. Why are young people failing to use birth control? And don’t they understand there’s nothing that crimps your spontaneity more effectively than a baby?
Photo of a woman holding birth control pills by Tim Matsui/Getty Images.
