Answers to Frequently Asked Questions About…
Impact of Emergency Contraception
Unintended Pregnancy in the United States
Unintended pregnancy – the term researchers
use to describe getting pregnant when you aren’t trying to have
a baby – is a significant problem in the United States today.
Despite the many types
of birth control available, the United States still has a far
higher of unintended pregnancy than most other industrialized countries.
The 2011 National Survey of Family Growth, supplemented by data from
other sources, provides the latest information on unintended pregnancy,
which affects one in every 20 women in the United States each year.
- 45% of all pregnancies were unintended
- 2.8 million unintended pregnancies occurred in 2011
- 58% of unintended pregnancies resulted in births and 42% ended in abortion (excluding miscarriages)
- 46% of women with an unintended pregnancy said they were using birth control during the month they got pregnant
- The proportion of pregnancies that were unintended increased slightly between 2001 and 2008 (from 48% to 51%), but, by 2011, it decreased to 45%.
Source: https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/unintended-pregnancy-united-states