Emerging Issues

Over the past decade, many public and private efforts have emphasized adolescent pregnancy prevention through abstinence and responsible behavior. Nearly all States (44) reported statewide family planning initiatives to prevent teen pregnancy in 2001. The number of States reporting the provision of school-based abstinence education increased from 26 to 36 in 2001.¹⁵

Understanding and analyzing important antecedents and outcomes of pregnancies is a challenge. The simple dichotomous measures of intended versus unintended pregnancy may not accurately predict desired outcomes and may not reflect those individuals who are ambiguous regarding pregnancy planning and contraception. More complete measures of a woman's or couple's feelings about a pregnancy may be more useful in understanding contraceptive use, prenatal care, and birth outcomes.

A study of pregnancy intended among women attending public health clinics has found that measuring happiness, effort in achieving the pregnancy, intendedness, and whether the woman wanted a baby with her partner best captures the notion of pregnancy desirability.¹⁶ Cycle 5 (1995) and Cycle 6 (2002) of NSFG had continuous measures of happiness or unhappiness to be pregnant, trying to get pregnant or avoiding pregnancy, wanting to get pregnant with a particular partner, as well as other measures that can be used to evaluate the degree to which women and their partners are able to control the timing and number of births.

In addition, at the Family Planning Progress Review in December 2004, the concept of preparedness for pregnancies was raised.¹⁷ The Office of Population Affairs is investigating how the concept of "preparation for pregnancy" could be defined and used.¹⁰

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