Comments on Men, Women, and Unintended Pregnancy

Abstract

I WOULD LIKE to take up two of the themes that thread through the articles by Morgan, Willis/Haaga, and Goldscheider/Kaufman. These are the extent of unintended pregnancy in the United States, a phenomenon that has yet to be fully appreciated, and the distinct reproductive attitudes, roles, and decisions of men and women that, when taken in combination, may produce such pregnancies. Fully 57 percent of all US pregnancies are unintended at the time of conception, that is, either unwanted or mistimed.' Some 28 percent of all pregnancies end in unintended births (20 percent being mistimed and 8 percent unwanted) and 29 percent of all pregnancies result in abortions. Even among the pregnancies that are taken to term, almost 40 percent were unintended at the time of conception. One might imagine unintended pregnancy to be largely a problem of teenagers, but in fact its incidence is considerable in the prime reproductive years. For example, of all pregnancies to women aged 30-34 in 1988, some 42 percent were unintended. Of these, one-half resulted in an induced abortion (for discussion see Brown and Eisenberg, 1995). Evidently, even in an advanced industrial society, control over reproduction remains markedly imperfect. What can be learned about US fertility by studying this important component?