Unplanned Pregnancies Lowest In 30 Years

The news on the unplanned pregnancy front is nothing but good. Vox:

Unintended pregnancies fell 18 percent between 2008 and 2011 — the steepest decline in decades — and it's largely because women are choosing better, more effective birth control.

More and more women are choosing birth control based on long-range plans for their own lives. Access to medical care under Obamacare is a huge part of this. Having a private conversation with a doctor, a woman can declare her desire to remain pregnancy free for a number of years (like when she is attending college) and a doctor can prescribe a long term contraceptive like an IUD or patch.

Long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs) are remarkably effective, in that a woman does not have to remember to take them or get a prescription refilled. They do not impact a woman's long-range fertility, but they do prevent pregnancy for the years that a woman wants to pursue other goals.

Obamacare, and specifically the contraception mandate, has made these devices accessible to many more women:

One of the biggest obstacles to LARC use, historically, has been price. Planned Parenthood has estimated that IUDs can cost between $500 and $900 out of pocket. Insurance plans tended to charge patients more for IUDs than for birth control pills, just because the devices have such high upfront costs.

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