A new governmental study reveals that the number of women using emergency contraception has dramatically increased over the last ten years. In addition, about 1 in 9 younger women have used the popular morning-after pill, also known as Plan B, after having sex.
The new report is the first study to focus on emergency contraception since the over-the-counter Plan B pills were approved 15 years ago. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the results on Thursday after surveying females ages 15-44. According to the stats, 11 percent of women who had sex reported using a morning-after pill which is a 4 percent increase from 2002.
Experts say more women are using Plan B, which is a high-dose version of a birth-control pill, because it's easier to get. It decreases a woman's chance of getting pregnant by stopping ovulation, but it must be taken within a few days after sex.
Half of the women who used the pills said they did so because they'd had unprotected sex, while others said they used it out of fear of a broken condom or that the birth-control method they used failed.
The CDC also released a report on overall contraception use which found that "virtually all women of reproductive age in 2006 to 2010 who had ever had sexual intercourse have used at least one contraceptive method at some point in their lifetime." 99% of women who've had sex used some sort of birth control, including 82% who used birth-control pills and 93% whose partner used a condom.
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