Marlice House was determined to take a different path from her mother, who had gotten pregnant with her at 17.“I do not want that to be me,” she said.So when Ms. House heard about a study offering sexually active teenagers in St. Louis free birth control, she signed up.Three in 10 girls and women in the United States become pregnant before 20, a rate significantly higher than that in many other rich countries. The 14- to 19-year-old participants in the study Ms. House joined, nearly half of whom had already had an unintended pregnancy, were offered free birth control and counseled on the benefits of long-acting contraceptives like intrauterine devices and implants, methods used by fewer than 5 percent of teenagers. Overwhelmingly, Ms. House and other teenagers — 72 percent of the 1,404 participants — chose long-acting birth control. And it had an enormous effect.

Click Here To Read More