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NEW YORK, May 5, 2006 (UPI via COMTEX) -- The proportion of unintended pregnancies resulting in live births increased by almost 50 percent among the U.S. poor between 1994 and 2001, a study shows.
A national study conducted by the Guttmacher Institute, which supports "personal decision-making" in sexual matters, found the rate of unplanned pregnancies increased by almost 30 percent for women below the federal poverty line, which is defined as $16,000 a year for a family of three, The Washington Post reported.
For women in families comfortably above poverty, the rate of unplanned pregnancies fell by 20 percent during the same period, data collected from the National Center for Health Statistics and other sources showed.
Women living in poverty are almost four times more likely to become pregnant unintentionally than women of greater means, the study found.
The study noted that some state and federal reproductive health programs have been cut or made more restrictive in recent years. State and federal programs have increasingly focused on abstinence rather than contraception.
Among sexually active women not trying to get pregnant, the percentage of those not using contraception increased to 11 percent from 7 percent from 1994 to 2001, The New York Times reported.
URL: www.upi.com Copyright 2006 by United Press International
