Intended and Unintended Births in the United States: 1982-2010. National Health Statistics Reports Number 55.

摘要

This report provides some basic statistics on the extent to which women in the United States are able, or unable, to have the number of births they want, when they want them. In this report, this measure is called the standard measure of unintended pregnancy. The report describes trends and group differences since 1982 in whether births were intended or unintended and is limited to pregnancies that ended in live births. Pregnancies ending in miscarriage, stillbirth, or abortion are excluded. Research that included all pregnancy outcomes has shown that about one-half of all pregnancies in the United States are unintended by the mother at the time she becomes pregnant, including more than one-third of live births. Other studies have shown that a higher percentage of births among teenagers, unmarried adults, low-income and less-educated women, and black women are unintended, compared with married, high-income, college-educated, and white women.