Table 2.
Rates of unintended pregnancy and abortion among US women Veterans served by VA compared to the larger population of US women, aged 20–44.
| Abortion and Pregnancy | Age-adjusted US population, (n=4,120)* |
Women Veterans served by VA, (n=2,298) |
Subset receiving VA services for ≥5 years (n=1,483) |
|---|---|---|---|
| % | % (95%CI) | % (95%CI) | |
| Lifetime | |||
| Ever pregnant (%) | 77.8 | 74.2 (72.4–76.0.) | 75.9 (73.7–78.1) |
| Ever unintended pregnancy (%) | 47.8 | 57.2 (55.2–59.2) | 57.8 (55.3–60.3) |
| Ever induced abortion (%) | 15.2 | 17.7 (16.1–19.3) | 18.9 (16.9–20.9) |
| Last 5 years | |||
| Pregnancy rate (%) | 38.0 | 28.1 (26.3–29.9) | 26.2 (24.0–28.4) |
| Unintended pregnancy rate (%) | 13.4 | 13.4 (12.0–14.8) | 11.4 (9.8.–13.0) |
| Abortion in last 5 years (%) | 2.9 | 2.3 (1.7–2.9) | 1.8 (1.1–2.5) |
| Last year | |||
| Pregnancy rate (%) | 10.1 | 6.7 (5.7–7.7) | 6.4 (5.2–7.46) |
| Unintended pregnancy rate (%) | 2.8 | 2.6 (1.9–3.3) | 2.0 (1.3–2.7) |
| Abortion per 1,000 women | 4.8 | 2.6 (0.5–4.7) | 2.7 (0.1–5.34) |
CI, confidence interval.
*
Age-specific estimates were obtained from the 2013–2015 NSFG data for women aged 20–44 with at least a high school education or GED and applied to the VA population age distribution. Age was categorized by 5 years as follows: 20–24, 25–29, 30–34, 35–39, and 40–44. The weighted sample size is 47,012,000.