Free birth control cuts abortion rate dramatically, study finds

[cal04]

A dramatic new study with implications for next month’s presidential election finds that offering women free birth control can reduce unplanned pregnancies -- and send the abortion rate spiraling downward.

When more than 9,000 women ages 14 to 45 in the St. Louis area were given no-cost contraception for three years, abortion rates dropped from two-thirds to three-quarters lower than the national rate, according to a new report by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis researchers.

From 2008 to 2010, annual abortion rates among participants in the Contraceptive Choice Project -- dubbed CHOICE -- ranged from 4.4 abortions per 1,000 women to 7.5 abortions per 1,000. That’s far less than the 19.6 abortions per 1,000 women nationwide reported in 2008, the latest year for which figures are available.

(snip)
The study’s lead author, Dr. Jeffrey Peipert, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Washington University, expected both measures to fall, but even he said he was “very surprised” by the magnitude.

http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/04/14224132-free-birth-control-cuts-abortion-rate-dramatically-study-finds?lite

[WCGreen]

1. But then there would be more of that there fornocatin'

[niyad]

2. no s*** sherlock

[Wounded Bear]

3. Only in America would this be called "news".....

I can hear 50 million people collectively saying "D'UH!" and slapping their foreheads now.

[ashling]

13. As illustrated in the following graph

= 250,000 people

[Aerows]

4. In other "no duh" news

...

Thanks for posting this. It's common sense, but apparently, that isn't so common anymore. "People have sex" seems to be a message that eludes a great number of people in our population, despite the fact that they themselves are a product of people having sex.

[Brickbat]

5. But that means they're having SEX WITHOUT CONSEQUENCES!

[msongs]

6. maybe it should be called "pregnancy prevention" not birth control nt

[caraher]

9. Sure, but it's not going to happen

It's also worth noting that the more extreme anti-abortion folks characterize most birth control methods as early abortions. That's because they're not looking at pregnancy prevention, choosing to place under the umbrella of "abortion" anything that prevents pregnancy after fertilization. So from the perspective of the mostly Catholic foes of paying for contraception, IUDs and birth control pills are actually causing super-early abortions.

I think that's a nutty way to look at it, but that's also the argument they're making and why they're not going to change their mind in the face of this kind of information.

[caraher]

7. I tossed this on FB

I have a lot of Catholic friends who bought into the idiotic "religious freedom" rhetoric on the contraceptive mandate, and they will go ape attacking this piece. But my hope is that those who recognize there's a real difference between abortion and contraception will notice that this is something that cuts the abortion rate by a factor of somewhere between 3 and 5, which everyone ought to cheer whether they favor abortion rights or not.

[riderinthestorm]

8. No shit Sherlock! This OP needs 1000 recs... let me start! nt

[xchrom]

10. I like numbers - I especially like numbers that

Support a thing you might think was - D'oh! - but have no idea until people are counted.

It's better to have the real numbers on your side - than your imaginary smarts.

[EC]

11. Duh?... n/t

[Dawson Leery]

12. The theocratic right won't like this.

[arboretum]

14. Interesting

I am expecting another study to be published soon which concludes that offering free money to people reduces bank robberies.

We must be on the right track.