Birth control use decreasing

I have to say, I’m pretty shocked. The Washington Post reports today that adult women are increasingly forgoing birth control:
Buried in the government’s latest in-depth analysis of contraceptive use was the finding that the number of women who had sex in the previous three months but did not use birth control rose from 5.2 percent in 1995 to 7.4 percent in 2002. That means that as many as 11 percent of all women are at risk of unintended pregnancy at some point during their childbearing years (ages 15 to 44).
Researchers at the National Center for Health Statistics took pains to point out that the “increase is statistically significant” and that the “apparent change merits further study.” Other analysts called the spike a troubling development that translates into at least 4.6 million sexually active women at risk of conceiving a child they had not planned on.
Even more interesting is that birth control use among teenagers is on the rise. So what’s going on with older women?
The article reports that a number of experts believe that one possible reason is the high cost of birth control–most notably the birth control pill, which is the most popular form of BC.
Jeffrey Jensen, director of the Women’s Health Research Unit at Oregon Health and Science University, says “It is absolutely unconscionable that women have a co-pay of $20 or $25 [a month] for contraceptives and men are getting off scot-free.”
Many docs are also putting blame on abstinence-only education programs.
John S. Santelli, a professor at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, says that “women in their twenties have probably gotten less effective information about contraception,” because of the significant drop in comprehensive sex education from 1988 to 2000. Great.
I know my ass has been on the pill for forever and a day, and I’m not planning on getting off of it for quite a while. But it costs me about $35 a month to get it, which definitely puts a dent in my paltry nonprofit salary. So I guess when you think about it, these stats aren’t entirely surprising.
Any thoughts?