Category Archives: Birth Control

Why Is Birth Control Use Declining in U.S. Women?

In late 2004, the National Center for Health Statistics released a report analyzing contraceptive usage in the United States from 1982-2002. The report discovered an interesting statistic — the percentage of adult women who had sex in the previous three … Continue reading

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Netherlands Ends Free Contraception Program

The Netherlands recently ended its policy of providing free contraception to all women over the age of 21. The free contraception policy, in combination with aggressive sexual education programs, was widely credited with the Netherlands having the lowest teenage pregnancy … Continue reading

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Researchers Develop Effective Male Contraceptive

Researchers at the Anzac Research Institute in Sydney, Australia, announced in October that a small clinical trial of a male contraceptive found the drug 100 percent effective and side-effect free. The trial involved 55 men who received a combination of … Continue reading

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Study of High Dose Oral Contraceptives Finds Low Death Rates

When the first oral contraceptives were introduced in the 1970s, they used relatively high doses of estrogen. Acting on the widely held view that lower doses of estrogen were safer, pharmaceutical companies gradually replaced the high dose pills with low … Continue reading

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James Madison University Decides to Ban Distribution of Morning After Pills

The Washington Post had an interesting story in April about James Madison University’s decision to stop the dispensing of the morning after pill in its campus health center after complaints from anti-abortion activists. The health center had been prescribing and … Continue reading

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Argentina Judge Bans Contraception

Argentine judge Cristina Garzon De Lascano ruled in May that oral contraceptives and intrauterine devices should be banned because they constitute abortion. According to the BBC, de Lascano ordered the destruction of all existing stocks of such medications and devices. … Continue reading

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FDA Asked to OTC Morning After Pill

Women’s Capitol Corp., which distributes the “morning after” pill Plan B, has filed a request the Food and Drug Administration to allow it to sell the drug over the counter. Plan B has been available by prescription in the United … Continue reading

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A Man’s Right to Choose?

A few weeks ago, on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade which gave women the right to make a range of reproductive choices, Glenn Sacks wrote an cogent summary of the arguments for a men’s right to choose. Sacks writes, … Continue reading

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Study Finds No Increased Risk of Breast Cancer from the Pill

A study of more than 9,000 U.S. women ranging from 35 to 65 has found no evidence that oral contraceptive use increases the risk of developing breast cancer. A 1996 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine had … Continue reading

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Contraceptive Patch Coming Soon to Europe and the United States

The BBC reported this week that the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products has approved a contraceptive patch that has already received Food and Drug Administration approval in the United States. Women on both sides of the Atlantic … Continue reading

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