Unintended Pregnancy in the American States

Lawrence B. Finer, Guttmacher Institute

The overall U.S. unintended pregnancy rate was stagnant between 1994 and 2001, but this constancy masked major differentials, and trends over time, among socioeconomic subgroups. These differentials suggest that there may be differences across the 50 U.S. states; state rates would also be of considerable value to public health officials and policymakers. Using newly available birth data from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System and data on the incidence of abortion from nationwide surveys, we will calculate the percentage of all pregnancies that are unintended and the unintended pregnancy rate for each state as a whole and key demographic subgroups. In this PAA presentation, we will present preliminary results for 2007 by state for the 39 states with PRAMS data. We will also discuss the relative levels of unintended pregnancy in PRAMS and the National Survey of Family Growth, and propose several approaches for calculating rates in non-PRAMS states.