Free birth control led to dramatically lower rates of abortions and teen births, a large study concluded Thursday, offering strong evidence for how a controversial Obama policy could benefit women's health.
The project tracked more than 9,000 women in St. Louis, many of them poor or uninsured. They were given their choice of contraceptive methods at no cost - from birth control pills to the IUD or a matchstick-sized implant.
When price wasn't an issue, women chose the most effective contraceptives - the implanted options, which typically cost hundreds of dollars to insert. These women experienced far fewer unintended pregnancies, reported Dr. Jeffrey Peipert of Washington University in St. Louis.
The effect on teen pregnancy was striking: There were 6.3 births per 1,000 teenagers in the study. Compare that to a national rate of 34 births per 1,000 teens in 2010.
There also were substantially lower rates of abortion, when compared with women in the metro area and nationally: 4.4 to 7.5 abortions per 1,000 women in the study, compared with 13.4 to 17 abortions per 1,000 women overall in the St. Louis region, Peipert said. That's lower than the national rate, which is almost 20 abortions per 1,000 women.
In fact, if the program were expanded, one abortion could be prevented for every 79 to 137 women given a free contraceptive choice, Peipert's team reported in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.
The findings come as millions of U.S. women are beginning to get access to free contraception under President Barack Obama's health-care law. Women's health specialists said the research foreshadows that policy's potential impact. "It's just an amazing improvement," said Dr. James T. Breeden, president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. "I would think if you were against abortions, you would be 100 per cent for contraception access."
The law requires that Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptives be available for free for women enrolled in most workplace insurance plans, a change that many will see Jan. 1.
