Family Planning American Style Redux: Unintended Pregnancy Improves, Barriers Remain

Abstract

This article discusses barriers to reducing unintended pregnancy. Numerous factors may explain the high rate of unintended pregnancy in the United States, including inadequate sex education, confusing media messages about sex, cultural attitudes about sex and young parenting, conflation of contraception with abortion, inadequate health care access, burdensome contraceptive dispensing practices, and hospital merger limitations on care. Successful and promising approaches to expanding access to reproductive health care and reducing unintended pregnancy are discussed.

Keywords: America; Contraception; Family planning; Health disparities; Sex education; Unintended pregnancy.