According to the pro-life organization Women Speak for Themselves (WSFT), the Population Council, in cooperation with Harvard University and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and others, has released a report showing that many more women worldwide are unhappy with their contraception than you might think. The report, titled, “Contraceptive Discontinuation: Reasons, Challenges and Solution, December 2015,” shows the following:
On average, a woman will use a contraceptive method for almost 20 months, with women using the IUD having the longest duration (over three years) and those using injectables the shortest (less than one year)….
For all methods, over one-third (38%) of women discontinue by the 12th month, over half (55%) by the 24th month, and almost two-thirds (64%) by the 36th month; when IUD users are excluded, these median rates are much higher at each time period (i.e., 40%–50% at 12 months).
WSFT says, “This has unpleasant implications for the intense push for IUDs and implants among poor and minority American women. Providers KNOW the women will have greater trouble getting these methods out.”
Indeed, when complications — some very serious — arise, as they frequently have with IUDs and implants (which tend to migrate in the body), women can’t just stop and switch to something else on their own. These contraception methods put women’s health at risk.
WSFT adds:
… [T]he majority who discontinue their birth control are reacting to “method related concerns” (iii) like prolonged bleeding, pain, headaches, mood problems, severe vaginal dryness, dizziness, and stomachaches (6). (They don’t even mention cancer, blood clots, strokes, or other known risks).
The group also notes that a “report from the Federal Department of Health and Human Services” shows “high rates of failure (9 to 30%) and of discontinuance (40%) [of contraception] among women in the United States.”
READ: Women deserve better than risky hormonal contraceptives
Contraceptive use, historically, has not reduced pregnancies or abortions. A fact sheet from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops notes this pattern has been seen in multiple countries:
Researchers in Spain examined patterns of contraceptive use and abortions in Spain over a ten-year period from 1997-2007. Their findings, published in the journal Contraception in January 2011, were that a 63 percent increase in the use of contraceptives was accompanied by a 108 percent increase in the rate of elective abortions.10
In July 2009 results were published from an expensive three-year program at 54 sites, funded by England’s Department of Health…. Young women who took part in the program were more likely than those in the control group to report that they had been pregnant (16% vs. 6%) and had early heterosexual experience (58% vs. 33%).11
David Paton, author of four major studies in this area, has found “no evidence” that “the provision of family planning reduces either underage conception or abortion rates.”12 ….
K. Edgardh found that despite free contraceptive counseling, low cost condoms and oral contraceptives, and over-the-counter emergency contraception (EC), Swedish teen abortion rates rose from 17 per thousand to 22.5 per thousand between 1995 and 2001.14
READ: Researchers: Free condoms actually increase teen pregnancy rates
Of course, the population control enthusiast’s “solution” to a lack of consistent contraceptive use among women including is to push for more and “free” birth control for the masses. The study actually concludes, “This review has demonstrated that there are no simple ‘quick fixes’ that will reduce such discontinuation [of contraceptive use]; this will only happen when family planning services are provided with higher quality and within a rights-based framework.”
Perhaps educating women about their own fertility signs through fertility awareness methods/Natural Family Planning — which, when used properly, can be as effective as an artificial, hormonal method of birth control — could go a long way toward helping women to work with their own biology rather than against it.
