Weighing the Health Benefits of Birth Control

From The New York Times:

Unveiled in 1960, the birth control pill revolutionized contraception. Yet despite an abundance of birth control options today, almost half the pregnancies in this country are unintended, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than in any other developed nation. What’s the reason?

The issue is not technology. But economics and human behavior are another story. Nearly a third of women who start a new type of birth control stop within a year, according to one recent study, largely because of changes in their insurance coverage. All methods have some side effects. And the current crop of intrauterine devices, or IUD’s, despite having a nearly perfect efficacy rate, have been slow to catch on, experts say, partly because more doctors need to be trained in inserting them.

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