From: cj@modernlvr.wpd.sgi.com (C J Silverio) Subject: tidbits from the guttmacher institute Date: 23 Apr 91 16:50:14 GMT Sender: news@odin.corp.sgi.com (Net News) Reply-To: cj@modernlvr.wpd.sgi.com (C J Silverio) --- [from the San Francisco Chronicle, Tues 23 April 1991, sidebar to an article on IUDs] More birth control data Here is some more information from the Guttmacher report. * American women who never use any birth control and who never have an abortion would have an average of 18 births during their reproductive lifetime based on simulation models. * Only two-fifths of women giving birth can expect to have a normal pregnancy and delivery. * Unintended pregnancies are at least as likely to end in induced abortion as in birth. * Childbirth accounts for less than one percent of deaths among women age 15 to 44. * For couples who decide to use sterilization, the health risk to the man is considerably lower if he has a vasectomy than the woman's risk if she is sterilized. * Periodic abstinence (such as the rhythm method) has a less- positive influence on health than other methods. * Although in theory condoms should offer better protection than diaphragms against sexually transmitted diseases, studies have consistently shown diaphragm users to have a lower incidence of disease than women whose partners are using condoms. * About two-fifths of all cancers among women occur in the reproductive system; breast cancer is the most common. The relationship of oral contraceptives to breast cancer is not yet clear. * In the United States, 40 percent of maternal deaths (deaths during pregnancy or childbirth) are attributable to cardiovascular disease. * The birth control methods with the lowest risk of death are vasectomies and IUDs (used by women in mutually monogamous relationships). -------------------------------------------------------------------- --- cj@modernlvr.wpd.sgi.com C J Silverio/Brahms Gang/Berkeley CA 94720 "I don't think Christians should use birth control." --Randall Terry, Operation Rescue