Letters: Letter writer misused statistic

In his March 16 letter to the editor, Tom Bessinger misuses a Guttmacher Institute statistic to support his argument that birth control is ineffective in preventing unintended pregnancies and abortion. He could not be more wrong. There is a wealth of evidence demonstrating that access to family planning services dramatically reduces the chance of having an unplanned pregnancy, the precursor event to almost every abortion. Using any contraceptive method reduces a couple's chances of having an unintended pregnancy by 85 percent, and the most effective methods virtually eliminate that risk.

For example, one recent Guttmacher Institute analysis found that the two-thirds of women at risk of unintended pregnancy who use contraception consistently and correctly account for only 5 percent of unintended pregnancies. The 19 percent of women at risk who use contraception but do so inconsistently account for 44 percent of all unintended pregnancies, while the 16 percent of women at risk who do not use contraception at all for a month or more during the year account for 52 percent of all unintended pregnancies. Most women having abortions were either not using any contraception or were using a method inconsistently.

Contraceptive use is as American as apple pie. Virtually all (more than 99 percent) of sexually active women in the United States have used at least one contraceptive method.

Let's stop these baseless and ideologically driven attacks on contraception and instead support sound public health policy by helping women in need exercise personal responsibility rather than throwing more roadblocks in their way.

Lawrence B. Finer, Ph.D.

Director of Domestic Research

Guttmacher Institute