By Lisa Gillespie
Teenage girls who are given access to long-acting contraceptives such as IUDs or hormonal implants at no cost are less likely to become pregnant, according to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine released Wednesday.
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The New England Journal study followed 1,404 teenage girls for two to three years after they received education on the most effective forms of contraception. Seventy-two percent of them chose to get a long-acting reversible contraceptive after counseling. The young women given choice and access to these methods at no cost were on average almost five times less likely to get pregnant, five times less likely to give birth and four times less likely to have an abortion than the national average.
“If a woman can only get a pill, and it’s hard for her to remember, there is a higher risk of her having an unintended pregnancy,” said Susan Berke Fogel, director of reproductive health at the National Health Law Program, a group that advocates for health rights for low-income and underserved people. Read the full article here. »
