Go to Content Go to Navigation Go to Navigation Go to Site Search Homepage

November 16, 2016 marked the 4th annual “Thanks, Birth Control” day! There’s a lot to celebrate around birth control: The ability to plan, prevent, and space pregnancies is directly linked to more educational and economic opportunities, healthier babies, more stable families, and a reduced taxpayer burden.

Some interesting facts about birth control:

  • Many of the gains women have made since 1965 — in timing and spacing children, obtaining education, entering the workforce, and moving closer to pay equity — are the direct result of access to birth control.
  • Birth control was named one of the 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
  • 99% of sexually active American women have used birth control. It’s a normal part of women’s lives and should not be a taboo topic or the subject of political posturing.
  • According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unintended Pregnancy, 8 in 10 adults agree that if more people were comfortable discussing birth control, more people would use it.
  • Long-acting reversible contraception methods like the IUD are the most cost-effective methods of birth control—they can provide coverage for up to 12 years.

Birth control is basic health care for women; the average woman will spend about 30 years of her life trying to avoid pregnancy. Planned Parenthood offers women education on the full range of birth control options, to help them make informed decisions about which contraceptive method is best for them.

Keep in mind:

  • No single birth control method is right for all women at all times. Women’s reproductive needs change throughout their lives, and their birth control should match those needs.
  • Planned Parenthood provides patients with information about the benefits and risks of any specific birth control method to help them make informed decisions.
  • For women who want to know about their birth control options, PlannedParenthood.org is a good place to start.

For over 100 years, Planned Parenthood has worked to continually enhance birth control access in this country through education and services to over 3.5 million people. As the nation’s leading women’s health care provider and advocate, Planned Parenthood knows the transformative effect birth control has on women’s lives — we see it every day in our patients and supporters. Thanks, Birth Control shines a spotlight on the many ways that birth control dramatically improves the lives of women and families, as well as the U.S. economy at large.

Tags:

Explore more on

We and our third partners use cookies and other tools to collect, store, monitor, and analyze information about your interaction with our site to improve performance, analyze your use of our sites and assist in our marketing efforts. You may opt out of the use of these cookies and other tools at any time by visiting Cookie Settings. By clicking “Allow All Cookies” you consent to our collection and use of such data, and our Terms of Use. For more information, see our Privacy Notice.

Cookie Settings

We, and our third-party partners, use cookies, pixels, and other tracking technologies to collect, store, monitor, and process certain information about you when you access and use our services, read our emails, or otherwise engage with us. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences, or your device. We use that information to make the site work, analyze performance and traffic on our website, to provide a more personalized web experience, and assist in our marketing efforts. We also share information with our social media, advertising, and analytics partners. You can change your default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of required cookies when utilizing our site; this includes necessary cookies that help our site to function (such as remembering your cookie preference settings). For more information, please see our Privacy Notice.

Marketing

On

We use online advertising to promote our mission and help constituents find our services. Marketing pixels help us measure the success of our campaigns.

User Feedback and Session Replay

On

We use qualitative data from LogRocket, UserZoom, Hotjar and AB Tasty to learn about your user experience and improve our products and services. LogRocket allows us to view session replays.