U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Family Planning

Goal: Improve pregnancy planning and prevent unintended pregnancy.

A woman holding a mug sits sideways on a couch with her legs across a man's lap while they look at each other and smile.

Nearly half of pregnancies in the United States are unintended,1 and unintended pregnancy is linked to many negative outcomes for both women and infants. Healthy People 2030 focuses on reducing unintended pregnancy by increasing use of birth control and family planning services.

Unintended pregnancy is linked to outcomes like preterm birth and postpartum depression. Interventions to increase use of birth control are critical for preventing unintended pregnancies. Birth control and family planning services can also help increase the length of time between pregnancies, which can improve health for women and their infants.

Adolescents are at especially high risk for unintended pregnancy. Although teen pregnancy and birth rates have gone down in recent years, close to 200,000 babies are born to teen mothers every year in the United States.2 Linking adolescents to youth-friendly health care services can help prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections in this age group.

Objective Status

  • 2 Target met or exceeded
  • 1 Improving
  • 7 Little or no detectable change
  • 1 Getting worse
  • 2 Baseline only
  • 1 Developmental
  • 0 Research

Learn more about objective types

Related Objectives

The following is a sample of objectives related to this topic. Some objectives may include population data.

Family Planning — General

Increase the proportion of women who get needed publicly funded birth control services and support — FP‑09
Baseline only
Increase the proportion of publicly funded clinics that offer the full range of reversible birth control — FP‑D01
Developmental

Adolescents

Increase the proportion of adolescents who have never had sex — FP‑04
Little or no detectable change
Increase the proportion of adolescent females who used effective birth control the last time they had sex — FP‑05
Little or no detectable change
Increase the proportion of adolescent males who used a condom the last time they had sex — FP‑06
Little or no detectable change
Increase the proportion of adolescents who use birth control the first time they have sex — FP‑07
Little or no detectable change
Increase the proportion of adolescents who get formal sex education before age 18 years — FP‑08
Little or no detectable change

Pregnancy and Childbirth

Reduce the proportion of pregnancies conceived within 18 months of a previous birth — FP‑02
Target met or exceeded
Reduce pregnancies in adolescents — FP‑03
Target met or exceeded
Increase the proportion of women at risk for unintended pregnancy who use effective birth control — FP‑10
Little or no detectable change
Increase the proportion of adolescent females at risk for unintended pregnancy who use effective birth control — FP‑11
Little or no detectable change
Reduce the proportion of unintended pregnancies — FP‑01
Baseline only

Sexually Transmitted Infections

Reduce the rate of mother-to-child HIV transmission — HIV‑06
Improving
Reduce congenital syphilis — STI‑04
Getting worse

Other topics you may be interested in

References

1.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019). Unintended Pregnancy. Retrieved from: https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/contraception/unintendedpregnancy/index.htm

2.

Finer, L.B. & Zolna, M.R. (2016). Declines in Unintended Pregnancy in the United States, 2008-2011. New England Journal of Medicine, 374(9), 843-52. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMsa1506575