WASHINGTON, D.C., March 11, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – As the debate over the Obama administration’s controversial contraception mandate rages on, a new report by the pro-abortion American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) claims that access to no-cost contraception does not lead to an increase in promiscuous sexual behavior. But pro-life groups that have analyzed the study’s data say its authors ignored critical pieces of information in forming their conclusion.
The ACOG study analyzed the results of the “Contraceptive CHOICE Project,” a program that provided roughly 10,000 women and girls the non-permanent contraception of their choice free of charge for a year. At the six month mark and again at the end of the year, participants were interviewed by telephone about their sexual habits over the previous 30 days, including how many men they had intercourse with and how often.
ACOG says that of the nearly 8,000 women and girls who completed the study, only 3.3 percent reported having had sex with multiple partners in the final month, compared with 5.2 percent at the start of the study. Project director Gina Secura told USA Today that the slight decrease should erase “the idea that the only thing standing between women and promiscuity is a fear of pregnancy.”
But all in all, the study found that 16 percent of study participants did increase their number of partners after being granted free birth control. Most of those were previously celibate women or girls who began having intercourse with a single partner after obtaining free access to contraception.
That’s the figure that most bothers Walter Hoye of the Issues4Life Foundation, who studied the ACOG numbers and said he was particularly disturbed that out of the five percent of women and girls who reported being virgins at the start of the study, fully 54 percent had become sexually active within a year of being granted access to no-cost birth control.
Hoye dismissed Secura’s attempt at reassurance, and compared offering free contraception to sexually active women and girls to “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic and serving free drinks as the ship is sinking to passengers already on board.”
“Studying the effects free birth control will have on women who are already sexually active and possibly using some form of birth control will show few if any significant changes in behavior,” Hoye said in a statement. “Studying the effects free birth control will have on women who have never been sexually active or used birth control, however, will reveal different results. The study showed that just five percent were virgins among those without partners at the time of the survey. At the end of the study only 46 percent were still virgins, which means 54 percent were no longer virgins.”
Hoyes said, “If your business gave away free samples and had a 54 percent increase in customers from a customer base that would never have bought your product before, wouldn't that be significant?”
Arina Grossu, director of the Family Research Council’s Center for Human Dignity, told USA Today she also finds the ACOG study’s results questionable. “Contraception gives women a false sense of safety,” Grossu said. “Women think they are completely protected, and they are not.”
Grossu pointed out to USA Today that the study lacked a control group of women who were not given free contraceptives, and said that the fact that participants were followed up with only by phone may have made it easier for participants to lie to researchers – a concern the study authors also cited in their report.
Additionally, the study’s authors warned that it’s possible the roughly 16 percent of women and girls who failed to answer the follow-up surveys were in the highest-risk group for promiscuity and risky behaviors, meaning the study’s results may well be skewed toward its most responsible participants, giving a misleading impression of safety.
This is not the first time ACOG has used its own research to publicly minimize the risk of contraceptives to women and teen girls. In 2012, the group came under fire for encouraging teen girls to install intrauterine devices (IUDs), which claim to offer long-term, no-hassle pregnancy prevention, but also carry the risk of early abortion and serious physical complications including chronic pain, ovarian cysts, headache, migraines, acne, depression, mood swings, organ damage, toxic shock syndrome and even death.
ACOG also opposes conscience rights for pro-life medical professionals to refuse to provide contraceptive or abortifacient drugs and procedures for patients, as well as religious freedom protections for employers forced under Obamacare to provide health insurance coverage for the same.
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