It is reported that there are 3.6 million unintended pregnancies in the US each year and almost half of these are terminated through abortion. What the data doesn't show is how many of those unintended pregnancies were due to incorrect contraception usage or women who don't bother to use contraception. An important question to ask is whether people would be compelled to take contraception, in a more efficient manner, if it was covered by their health insurance plan?
Arguments that support insurance coverage for contraception include the premise that unwanted pregnancies and abortions would drop because women would use contraception, such as the pill, if it were provided to them through their health insurance plans. Unfortunately this argument is faulty. First, a University of Michigan study showed, that out of 103 women who had electronic measuring devices attached to their birth control pill packages, only 25% of them had a perfect record in terms of taking their pills every day. Nearly half of the group missed two or more days, which according to the directions printed on the pill package could result in pregnancy. To make matter worse only half of this group then used back up protection as directed on the package.
Second, using simple economic theory we can infer that when the price of sex decreases ("free" birth control) then the consumption of sex should increase. If we apply the numbers from the University of Michigan study to the population in general, there is a very real possibility that the number of unintended pregnancies and abortions would increase. There is no evidence that shows if the pills were "free" (i.e. covered by their insurance companies) women would be compelled to take them more responsibly as the above mentioned Michigan study showed.
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