A new study says use of the morning-after pill in the U.S. is on the rise, especially among younger women … interestingly, teen lingerie sales are way up as well. Makes you think! A major government study has found that 11 percent of sexually active women recently used the morning-after pill, up from just 4 percent in 2002. One in four women aged 20-24 used the drug, compared with one in nine overall, among 12,000 females surveyed and aged 15-44 from 2006-10. The research showed that more white and educated women used the drug the most, usually because of worries that their other birth control method failed. Meanwhile, Hispanic and African-American women were more likely than whites to report using the drug after unprotected sex, the CDC concluded. Overall, about one in five women surveyed who had never been married had taken a morning-after pill, compared with just one in 20 married women. Of the women who had used the pill, 59 percent said they had done it only once, 24 percent said twice, and 17 percent said three or more times. Emergency contraception has been available by prescription in the U.S. since 1999, before regulators approved over-the-counter sales of it in 2006. While the number of women using regular birth control in general has remained steady, the use of patches, intrauterine devices and injections has grown.
