CDC Releases New Report on American Teens and Sex: Here Are 4 Things You Need to Know

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Thursday, June 22, 2017

Increase in Emergency Contraception Use

A Plan B One-Step emergency contraceptive box is seen in New York, April 5, 2013. A federal judge on Friday ordered the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to make 'morning-after' emergency contraception pills available without a prescription to all girls of reproductive age. — A Plan B One-Step emergency contraceptive box is seen in New York, April 5, 2013. A federal judge on Friday ordered the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to make "morning-after" emergency contraception pills available without a prescription to all girls of reproductive age. | (Photo: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton)

The CDC report noted an increase in the use of emergency contraception among sexually active American teenagers.

When comparing data from 2002 and data from 2011–2015, the authors found that use of emergency contraception increased from 8.1 percent to 22.9 percent.

"From 2002 to 2011–2015, virtually all sexually experienced female teenagers had used some method of contraception, and this increased across these time periods, from 97.7 percent in 2002 to 99.4 percent in 2011–2015," noted the report.

"This level has been sustained since the earliest published data in this series, for 1995, when it was 96.2 percent. ... The most commonly used method among teenagers in 2011–2015 remained the condom (reported by 97.4 percent of females), followed by withdrawal (59.7 percent) and the pill (55.5 percent)."