The Best Intentions Unintended Pregnancy and the Well-Being of Children and Families (1995) / Chapter Skim
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Demography of Unintended Pregnancy
Demography of Unintended Pregnancy
Pages 21-49
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From page 21... ...
The chapter's penultimate section discusses the position of the United States in relationship to other developed countries on these measures. TERMINOLOGY Women often informally discuss their personal feelings about the timing of the pregnancies they have had whether a baby came just a bit too early, whether a pregnancy occurred at a time when it interfered with future plans but would have been wanted at a later time, whether a baby had been desperately sought for several years and was the answer to heartfelt prayers, or whether a pregnancy was not wanted at any time.
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From page 22... ...
Information on the demography of unintended pregnancy the subject of this chapter is dominated by data from the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) , a federally-sponsored survey that has developed quite specific terminology and definitions to measure "unintended pregnancy." Over the past four decades, a series of questions has been regularly asked of women by this survey and its predecessors, the Growth of American Families surveys and the National Fertility Studies, in an effort to learn more about women's plans and intentions at the time they became pregnant.
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The distinctions that the NSFG draws between intended and unintended and between mistimed and unwanted carry important implications. For example, unintended pregnancies are far more likely to end in abortion than intended pregnancies, and births resulting from unwanted conceptions appear to carry particular risks for both mother and child.
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Second, the marital status groupings used by the NSFG in its fertility questions have changed over the years. For example, the 1965 and 1970 National Fertility Studies were conducted only among currently married women.
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Important attempts have been made to supplement the NSFG data with more complete abortion information in order to provide an understanding of the overall level of unintended pregnancy (Forrest and Singh, 19901. The NSFG remains the key data set, however, for tracking the intention status of births, providing comprehensive information on the families in which such births occur and on many other issues as well.
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From page 26... ...
The figure also shows that the majority of births from unintended pregnancies were from mistimed rather than unwanted pregnancies.
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Within this pool of unintended pregnancies, some 1.6 million ended in abortion and 1.5 million resulted in a live birth. O-nly 2.3 million pregnancies in that year were intended at the time of conception and resulted in a live birth.
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From page 28... ...
Not surprisingly, among women of reproductive age, the highest proportions at risk of unintended pregnancy are found at ages 18-29, the age range in which most women are fertile, have usually begun sexual activity but often prefer to delay pregnancy, and are generally too young to seek sterilization (Figure 2-31. Seventy percent of women in this age category are at risk of Contended pregnancy.
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From page 29... ...
Women at Risk of Unintended Pregnancy, 1990 Estimates: The Need for Family Planning Services, Each State and County. New York, NY: The Alan Guttmacher Institute; 1993.
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From page 30... ...
Women at Risk of Unintended Pregnancy, 1990 Estimates: The Need for Family Planning Services, Each State and County. New York, NY: The Alan Outtmacher Institute; 1993.
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From page 31... ...
(This table displays pregnancies by both intention status and outcome for several demographic groupings, and also includes the actual number of pregnancies involved in each demographic category.) As this table shows, even among currently married women, 4 in 10 pregnancies were either mistimed or unwanted.
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From page 33... ...
supplemented the 1982 and 1988 NSFG data on births with more complete information on abortions and found that the overall incidence of unintended pregnancy increased very slightly between 1982 and 1987, from 55.5 to 57.3 percent. Over those same years, however, there was a larger increase in the proportion of births resulting from 'unintended pregnancies, primarily because of a small decrease in the proportion of unintended pregnancies that were aborted.8 Put another way, given an unintended pregnancy, slightly fewer women obtained abortions in 1987 than in 1982, resulting in more children being born who were unintended at the time of conception (Forrest and Singh, 19901.
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From page 34... ...
Between 1982 and 1988, however, the percentage of births derived from unintended pregnancies among these currently married women increased, from 30 to 33 percent, largely because of an increase in births unwanted at conception. Between 1988 and 1990, the proportion of births ,~nirltended at conception increased again, to 37 percent, this time entirely because of an increase in births mistimed at conception.
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National Survey of family Grown 1982 ~ 1988. Tel~bo~ Reimerv~w; 1990 Riming d-.
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, amok ~n-8ispanic wb11e women ages 25~. Source: Brass L
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; Williams LB, Pratt WF. Wanted and unwanted childbearing in the United States: 1973-1988.
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From page 38... ...
are unintended at the time of conception than is the case for currently married and ever-married women; but interestingly, trends in births derived from unintended pregnancies among these women follow a different pattern. Between 1982 and 1990, both currently married and evermarried women experienced a steady increase in births unintended at conception, as noted above.
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From page 39... ...
The intention status of births among ever-married women below the poverty level followed the same pattern as that of all ever-married women from 1973 to 1988; that is, the proportion of births derived from Unintended pregnancies decreased from 1973
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From page 40... ...
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From page 41... ...
More than a million and a half abortions occurred in the United States every year during We 1980s; in both 1991 and 1992, the total number was about 1.5 million (Figure 2-8~. As already shown in Figure 2-2, over half of all unintended pregnancies end in abortion.
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From page 42... ...
Source: Henshaw SK, Van Vort J Abortion services in the United States, 1991 and 1992.
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From page 43... ...
Few over Western democracies have abortion rates that even approach those of the United States; the U.S. rate is more Han 50 percent higher than the Of all unintended pregnancies were prevented, it is not the case that the total fertility rate would be as low as is implied by the intended pregnancy rate, because many unintended pregnancies are mistimed and would occur later as intended pregnancies.
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45 at .
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Source: Henshaw SK, Van Vort J Abortion services in the United States, 1991 and 1992.
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From page 47... ...
The higher total pregnancy rate in the United States is due entirely to the higher rate of unintended pregnancies (births resulting from unintended pregnancies plus abortions)
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From page 48... ...
women experience more unintended pregnancies and therefore more abortions as well as births Wan women In many other industrialized countries. Such data suggest that lower rates of unintended pregnancy could be achieved In the United States.
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From page 49... ...
Wanted and unwanted childbearing in the United States: 19731988. Advance data from Vital and Health Statistics, no.
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