Make wishtv.com your home page

Study: More teens using morning after pill

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – A new report released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control suggests the number of teens using the morning after pill has more than doubled compared to ten years ago.

The CDC report was based on a survey of about 2,000 teens from 15 to 19 years old from 2011 to 2013.

The survey found that the number of teens using the pill has increased steadily over the past decade ever since the pill became over the counter.

Now, the CDC finds more than one in five sexually active teen girls have used the morning after pill.  That’s up from one in twelve from a decade ago when the pill was prescription only.

Beginning in 2006, teens 18 and older could buy the pill over-the-counter. Two years ago the age limit was lifted.

The report didn’t find much change as far as other contraceptive use is concerned.

A chief officer for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy says this suggests that teens, like adults, are not good at contraception. He went on to say that in the battle of sex and sex with contraception, sex often wins.

The CDC says that from the late 1980s to early 2000s there was a steep decline in how many teens reported having sex. The newly released report found since then there really hasn’t been a change from about 45 percent of both girls and boys being sexually active.

According to Planned Parenthood, teen pregnancy is at an all-time low across the country although it says the decline hasn’t been as noticeable in Indiana.

The organization says 23 Indiana teens become pregnant each day.