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Pages 1-10

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From page 1...
... The consequences of unintended pregnancy are serious, imposing appreciable burdens on children, women, men, and families. A woman with an 'unintended pregnancy is less likely to seek early prenatal care and is more likely to expose the fetus to harmful substances (such as tobacco or alcohol)
From page 2...
... Contraceptive use and unintended pregnancy are influenced by numerous factors: knowledge about contraceptive methods and reproductive health generally, individual skill in using contraception properly, a wide range of personal feelings and attitudes, varying patterns of sexual behavior, access to 2The difference between the percentage of pregnancies that are unintended (close to 60 percent) and the percentage of births resulting from unintended pregnancies (about 44 percent)
From page 3...
... Nonetheless, the information reviewed in this report, past experience in the public health sector with addressing complex health and social problems, and common sense are all helpful in developing a plan of action to address this important national problem. COMMIl~lEE RECOMMENDATIONS The extent of unintended pregnancy and its serious consequences are poorly appreciated throughout the United States.
From page 4...
... Although individuals clearly need increased attention and services, reducing unintended pregnancy will require that influential organizations and their leaders corporate officers, legislators, media owners, and others of similar stature address this problem as well. The campaign should also draw on the successful experience of other major efforts to address complicated public health problems, such as the national campaigns to reduce smoking, limit drunk driving, and increase the use of seat belts.
From page 5...
... Accordingly, the campaign should include a series of information and education activities directed to women of all ages, not just adolescent girls, describing available contraceptive methods and highlighting, in particular, the common occurrence of unintended pregnancy among women age 20 and over, especially those over age 40 for whom an unintended pregnancy may carry particular medical risks. Activities should target boys and men as well, emphasizing their stake in avoiding unintended pregnancy, the contraceptive methods available to them, and how to support their partners' use of contraception.
From page 6...
... Through a combination of financial and structural factors, the health care system in the United States makes access to prescription-based methods of contraception a complicated, sometimes expensive proposition. Private health insurance often does not cover contraceptive costs; the various restrictions on Medicaid eligibility make it an unreliable source of steady financing for contraception except for very poor women who already have a child; and the net decline in public investment in family planning services (especially those services supported by Title X of the Public Health Service Act)
From page 7...
... In addition, foundations and government should fund high-quality evaluation studies of the impact that both Title X and Medicaid have on unintended pregnancy and related outcomes. Without better data on the effects of these and other publicly funded programs active in the area of reproductive health, such programs remain particularly vulnerable to attack, and it is difficult to know how best to strengthen them.
From page 8...
... Similarly, school curricula and programs that train health and social services professionals in reproductive health should include ample material about the skills that contraception requires and about the influence of personal factors on successful contraceptive use, along with more conventional information about reproductive physiology and contraceptive technology. The influence of motivation in pregnancy prevention also underscores the importance of longer-acting, coitus-independent methods of contraception (e.g.
From page 9...
... even those few programs showing positive effects report only small gains, which demonstrates how difficult it can be to achieve major decreases in unintended pregnancy; (2) because most evaluated programs target adolescents, especially adolescent girls, knowledge about how to reduce unintended pregnancy among adult women and their partners is exceedingly limited; (3)
From page 10...
... Research on personal feelings, attitudes, and beliefs as they affect contraceptive use, and especially several recent ethnographic investigations of motivation, offer particularly intriguing explanations for the observed phenomena. Careful work is needed to integrate these ideas with the more traditional explanations of unintended pregnancy, such as inaccessible contraceptive services or insufficient knowledge about how to prevent pregnancy.


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