Unintended pregnancies rise for poor

5th September 2011   ·   0 Comments

NEW YORK — A new study from the Guttmacher payday loan on unemployment Institute reports that as the rate of unintended pregnancies continues to decrease among wealthy or educated women, the rate among women who fall below the federal poverty line has climbed.

A new analysis from the Guttmacher Institute shows that following a considerable decline between 1981 and 1994, the overall U.S. unintended pregnancy rate has remained essentially flat — about five percent of U.S. women have an unintended pregnancy every year.

However, the rate has increased dra­ma­tically among poor women, while among higher-income wo­men it has continued to decrease substantially, according to “Unin­tended Pregnancy in the United States: Incidence and Disparities, 2006,” by Lawrence B. Finer and Mia R. Zolna.

In 1994, the unintended pregnancy rate among women with in­comes below the federal poverty line where can you get an installment loan was 88 per 1,000 women aged 15–44; it increased to 120 in 2001 and 132 in 2006 — a 50 percent rise over the period.

At the same time, the rate among higher-income women (those with incomes at or above 200 percent of the poverty line) fell from 34 in 1994 to 28 in 2001 and 24 in 2006 — a 29 percent decrease.

Poor women’s high rate of unintended pregnancy results in their also having high — and increasing — rates of both abortions (52 per 1,000) and unplanned births (66 per 1,000).

In 2006, poor women had an unintended pregnancy rate five times that of higher-income women, and an unintended birth rate six times as high.

Analyzing U.S. government data from the quick short term loans no credit check National Survey of Family Growth and other sources, Finer and Zolna found that of the 6.7 million pregnancies in 2006, nearly half (49%) were unintended.

Although some unintended pregnancies are accepted or even welcomed, more than four in 10 (43%) end in abortion. Unintended pregnancy rates are elevated not only among poor and low-income women, but also among women aged 18 – 24, cohabiting women and minority women.

It is important to note, however, that poor women have high unintended pregnancy rates nearly across the board, regardless of their education, race and ethnicity, marital status or age.

In contrast to the high rates among certain groups, some women in the United States are having considerable success timing and spacing their pregnancies. Higher-income women, white women, payday loans in san dimas ca college graduates and married women have relatively low unintended pregnancy rates (as low as 17 per 1,000 among higher-income white women — one-third the national rate of 52 per 1,000), suggesting that women who have better access to reproductive health services, have achieved their educational goals or are in relationships that support a desired pregnancy are more likely than other women to achieve planned pregnancies and avoid those they do not want.

“These data suggest that women who lead stable lives — women who are older, more affluent and better-educated — tend to have better reproductive health outcomes, while women whose lives are less stable, such as younger, poorer or less educated women, have higher rates of unplanned pregnancies, unwanted births and abortions,” said Finer. “They also advance easy show that marriage is not, in and of itself, a solution to the problems women have in controlling their fertility: In fact, poor women who are married have unintended pregnancy rates more than twice as high as those of higher-income women who are unmarried or cohabiting.”

In commenting on the study, Guttmacher Institute President and CEO Sharon Camp said: “…We must ensure that all women, and particularly those who are most vulnerable, have access to the education and range of reproductive health services and counseling they need in order to plan the pregnancies they want and prevent the ones they don’t.”

This article was originally published in the September 5, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper