saquigley@watmath.UUCP (Sophie Quigley) (11/10/84)
According to "Making Choices: evaluating the Health Risks and Benefits of
Birth control Methods" by the Alan Guttmacher Institute:
Based on surveys of american women, the authors estimate that one-third of
US women of reproductive age are not at risk of unintended pregnancy, because they are pregnant, or seeking to be, are infertile or are not currently in a
sexual relationship (I suppose they mean with men!).
Among the 2 thirds who are at risk, more than 9 in 10 of them use some
contraceptive method. (The choice of method is highly dependant on such
characteristics as age, marital status, race and socio-economic status)
Even among thos who report that they are not using any form of birth control,
"virtually none of these women say that they are not using a method because
they expect to have an abortion if they get pregnant". The main reason
given by these women for non-use of contraceptives is the fear of side-effects.
Estimates are that a woman who started to have sexual intercourse at 17 and
used no method of contraception could expect to have about 31 abortions or
14 births before she was 45 years old.
But in Canada in 1982 only 15% of women who obtained abortions reported one
previous abortion. Only 3% had had more than one previous abortion.
Sophie Quigley
...!{clyde,ihnp4,decvax}!watmath!saquigley