Women offered free birth control or other contraception are not more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior, says a Washington University study.
Critics of free birth control programs argued that offering contraception so freely encourages women to sleep with multiple partners
"Having multiple partners is a known risk behavior," author Gina Secura, project director of the CHOICE project, said in a statement. "If sexual behavior were going to change after women received free contraception, you would expect to see that change soon after they got the birth control."
The study refutes that preconceived notion.
Using data from the Contraceptive CHOICE Project, researchers looked at over 9,000 women, age 14 to 45, in the St. Louis area that were at high risk for accidental pregnancy. These women were given their choice of contraception, including intrauterine devices, implants, birth control pills, patches and rings. Researchers note that a previous study conducted on these same participants showed that free birth control significantly lowered the number of unintended pregnancies and abortions.
The women were surveyed six and 12 months after receiving the free contraception about their number of sexual partners and recurrence of intercourse -both indicators associated with pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). For 70 percent of them there was no difference in their number of sexual partners at 12 months, and almost 14 percent reported a decrease and 16 percent reported an increase. But of these women that confirmed having more sexual partners after being given the free contraception, 80 percent of them went from having zero partners to just one.
Senior author Dr. Jeffrey Peipert confirms that access to free contraception is not to blame.
"Increasing access to no-cost contraceptives doesn't translate into riskier sexual behavior. It's not the contraception that drives their sexual behavior," Peipert concludes.
