Unintended pregnancy in America and abroad
Westoff, C.F.
Family Planning Perspectives 20(6): 254-261
1988
ISSN/ISBN: 0014-7354 PMID: 3229471 DOI: 10.2307/2135481Document Number: 361558
US women under age 25 are more likely to become pregnant than are comparable young women in other developed countries; however, there is no such differential among older women. Young American women appear to be no more likely than their European contemporaries to marry or to engage in intercourse at a young age, but they do seem less likely to practice contraception. The question is why this is the case. There are grounds to maintain that young American women have more limited access to effective contraceptives than do comparable groups of Europeans, but the problem undoubtedly has social and economic aspects as well. No other Western nation has the ethnic and socioeconomic diversity of the US--a diversity that includes the existence of an underclass alienated from middle class values. Limited evidence also suggests that young Americans, regardless of social class, may be more prone to risk taking than young people in other countries. Finally, another attribute of American society that undoubtedly contributes to the problem of high pregnancy rates is ambivalence toward sexuality. Sex saturates American life in TV programs, movies, and advertisements--and yet the media generally fails to communicate responsible attitudes toward sex. Birth control still remains a taboo subject. In addition, a deep-seated ambivalence toward sexuality has prevented Americans from responding to the problems of unintended pregnancy as rationally as have other Western nations.