A new report details the surprisingly complex realities of planned and unplanned childbirth. Unplanned births hit a low in the mid-’90s but have been creeping up again and now constitute 37 percent of births, according to the report by the National Center for Health Statistics, which is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Cohabitating women, who are more likely to have unplanned births than married women, have become a bigger chunk of the overall birth rate, shifting from 14 percent of births in 2002 to 23 percent in the 2006-2010 report.
With contraception’s universal popularity (99 percent of women who’ve ever had sexual intercourse have used it) and the option of abortion (43 percent of unintended pregnancies end in abortion), one does have to wonder why women keep having so many “oops” babies. Turns out that the situation is complicated, defying the easy “women are stupid” or “women aren’t careful” rationales that have traditionally been so popular:
Researchers asked women who were not using contraception at the time they conceived about their reasons. They found that 35.9 percent said they did not think they could get pregnant. Additionally, 23.1 percent said they would not mind if they became pregnant, 17.3 percent said they had not expected to have sex, 14.3 percent said they were worried about the side effects of using birth control.
Eight percent said their male partner did not want to use birth control himself, and 5.3 percent said their male partner did not want them to use birth control.
It seems strange that so many women think they are infertile, but looking at the combination of social silence on the topic of contraception and a pop culture that portrays people having contraception-free sex with relatively few pregnancies makes it easier to understand.
Additionally, it’s important to understand that the concept of planning parenthood is relatively new, and older magical thinking that puts pregnancy and childbirth in the realm of fate won’t just disappear that easily.
The belief that women who plan for sex are dirty sluts must also have something to do with why so many women turn up pregnant because they wouldn’t prepare for the possibility of sex. And unfortunately, we’re still seeing a chunk of unplanned pregnancies resulting from men who reject whatever is going to interfere with their mighty seed, but thankfully that number seems pretty low, comparatively. (And there are of course women and men who are careless.)
What’s really interesting is that this particular survey engaged the question of ambivalence about getting pregnant, something 23 percent of the noncontraception-using women experienced. Ambivalence is a normal part of all human experience, and many just roll the dice and let chance make decisions for them.
Women have absorbed the belief that they shouldn’t get pregnant until they’re ready — that’s how you get 99 percent using contraception at least once — but in practice, it’s really hard to know what “ready” means. Yes, society and many politicians tell you that you must have a ring first, at bare minimum, but our culture also has a lot of myths about how a guy who is teetering on the edge of commitment will become the best husband ever if he gets a push.
In fact, that notion was directly stated in a New York Times piece about single motherhood, where Jason DeParle wrote, “Marriage, that is, can help make men marriageable.”
Feminists often don’t like to talk about women who aren’t trying but also are not not trying to get pregnant because there’s this toxic, misogynistic myth out there about women who want to “trap” men with babies, even though men aren’t actually that trappable.
But ambivalent pregnancies are a real problem, both in terms of health outcomes for the babies and long-term stability for the mothers (and fathers). Pushing back hard on the idea that it’s a woman’s responsibility to turn a man into husband material could help women do better in the long run.
Excuse me Ms. Marcotte, but didn’t someone explain the birds and the bees to you?
Children are a blessing from God Who created us. Killing over 54 million unborn babies since Roe v. Wade and the Feminist movement, is resulting in a Judgment that will equal no other.
I think the treatment of living children will reap a greater Judgement if there is a true caring God.
Allowing living children to live in poverty and and die of easily treatable diseases because people think they pay too much in taxes or that they don’t matter is much much worse than abortion.
So do you put any responsibility on those (who may not be financially able to care for a child) who bring the children into the world or is it just the responsibility of people who “think they pay too much in taxes?”
So what is a couple to do if they can’t afford a child?
Conservatives are against anything that helps couples engage in a loving relationship and then say they shouldn’t have a child unless they can afford one.
When was the last time you heard conservative organizations calling for easier access to contraceptives or comprehesive sex education?
Or cheaper, more effective Pre- and Post- natal care for poor women and mothers?
I always thought that women have a right to do whatever they want to their bodies, and I still do– except when it comes to murder. We could easily solve our world’s problems through killing, but it would be at the cost of our humanity. I consider myself to be a feminist, but I can’t find it in myself to approve of abortion, because I know it is the killing of a child. Look inside yourselves. This is not about religion or feminism. It is about morality. The morals of our society say that it is not okay to kill other humans. Our morals make us even more shocked when a pregnant woman is killed and the fetus dies. Why don’t we then focus our energies on sex education and accessible contraception instead of condoning murder?
The idea that religion and feminism are pitted against each other saddens me.
And what are your views on contraception?
And what are you doing to care for the abandoned, unplanned “gifts” of children?
Probably same as you.
I doubt it, probably not. How ’bout you?
彡 ☆ミ
I don’t think there are THAT many “unplanned” pregnancies. If birth control is used as directed, it is very effective. Some people have kids because they simply know that society will take care of them. Young girls have kids and get to sit home and live off public assistance. Some guys don’t care how many kids they have running around who don’t know their father. There is no detriment to some people.
There are women who try to trap men by having a baby as well….not saying it happens in every case but it certainly happens (go off birth control, etc).
________________________________________________________________________
“Cohabitating women, who are more likely to have unplanned births than married women, have become a bigger chunk of the overall birth rate, shifting from 14 percent of births in 2002 to 23 percent in the 2006-2010 report.”
___________________________________________________________
We needed a report to tell us that?
Is it the births that are unplanned?! Perhaps. Only Caesarians are really “planned,” after all
But I suspect the article means to say that it’s the conceptions that are unplanned.
Unplanned or planned children. Wanted or unwanted children. Children who live in poverty or children who do not live in poverty. Children with diseases or children without diseases……don’t each and everyone of these children have equal dignity? Who are any of us to judge the value of any other life – planned or unplanned.