246-247 Trussell

Family Planning Perspectives Unintended pregnancies occur all too commonly in the United States. Although their impact on individual women or couples varies, such pregnancies have been linked to a number of social and health problems, such as poor birth outcomes.1 However, despite the frequency and the consequences of unintended pregnancy, its definition—and therefore its measurement—remains elusive. Efforts at definition generally rely on factors such as pregnancy outcome, the woman’s retrospective report of her intentions at the time she became pregnant, and the use or nonuse of contraceptive methods. Clearly, not all unintended pregnancies are contraceptive failures, because unintended pregnancies can and do occur when no contraceptive is used; indeed, almost half (47%) of unintended pregnancies occur to women who are not using a method when they conceive.2 On the other hand, one would assume that all contraceptive failures Are All Contraceptive Failures Unintended Pregnancies? Evidence from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth