Facts about Sexual Assault & Emergency Contraception
Sexual Assault and Pregnancy
An estimated 25,000 U.S. women become pregnant as a result of sexual assault each year. EC could be used to prevent 22,000 of these pregnancies.
12% of all women experience sexual assault in a lifetime and 4.7% of those assaults result in pregnancy.
3% of all pregnancies in women 19 years and younger are caused by sexual assault.
An estimated 3 million unintended pregnancies occur in the U.S. each year. EC could prevent as many as 1.5 million, including as many as 800,000 pregnancies that result in abortion.
EC in the ER: Care for Rape Survivors
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists all recommend that sexual assault survivors be offered EC to prevent pregnancy.
Yet only about 20% of rape survivors receiving treatment at hospital ERs actually received EC over a seven-year time period, according to a new national study.
Surveys in several states have found wide variation in hospital policies on provision of EC to rape survivors. Read a report about the surveys (link to an external website).
