This is Scientific American 60 Second Science.

I'm Cynthia Graber.

Got a minute?

It sounds obvious.

Pregnancy could be avoided by using contraception, but 15 million unwanted pregnancies could be avoided

annually in 35 low- and middle-income countries if women did in fact use modern

contraception. That's according to a study in the journal Human Reproduction.

Unwanted pregnancy has a wide range of serious consequences.

Women may have to stop their education or employment.

They might pursue unsafe abortions, and they can face disability, disease, and death

as a result of the pregnancy.

To determine barriers to the use of contraception,

researchers compared surveys and interviews

of nearly 13,000 women who became pregnant unintentionally.

They compared the data to that from more than 100,000 women who were sexually active

and did not want to be pregnant.

For women who were sexually active did not want to be pregnant but did not use

contraception, 37% feared health side effects from contraception.

22% said they or their partner objected. These issues outweighed cost or availability.

Women also underestimated the risks of getting pregnant from unprotected sex.

The World Health Organizations Howard Sobel is one of the authors of the study. In a press

release he says the research shows that health workers need to play a bigger

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