UK: Study leads to claims about alcohol and abortion

An article in the Daily Mail claims that ‘the devastating effects of excess alcohol on young women have been spelled out by a major study’, finding that ‘binge drinking “ladettes” are 40 per cent likelier to have an abortion’.

Researchers from University College London examined the alcohol consumption and sexual activity of almost 25,000 individuals aged 16 to 44 over a ten-year period. They found that women who drank in excess – more than 14 units a week – were 1.8 times more likely to have taken emergency contraception such as the morning after pill at least once over the last year, the Mail reports. They were also 1.4 times likelier to have had at least one abortion in the last 18 months.

In fact the study, published in the Journal of Public Health, found no association between heavy drinking and using emergency contraception or accessing abortion. In their paper, the authors write:

‘The drinking behaviours we measured increased between 1990/91 and 2000/01 in the British population, with the proportion of heavy drinkers tripling over this time. Both surveys observed greater numbers of partners and some sexual risk behaviours among those drinking in excess of the recommended limits.

‘As the magnitude of these relationships has remained the constant, this suggests that the interrelated public health issues of sexual risk-taking and heavy drinking increased in scale during the 1990s. For example, we found that those who usually drank in excess of recommended limits at the time of the interview were more likely to report unprotected sex with multiple partners and poor contraceptive choices.

‘Female heavy drinkers were more likely to report using emergency contraception in the year prior to interview, although not after adjusting for partner numbers and sociodemographics, and no association was observed with reporting an abortion in the previous 5 years. However, non-use of reliable contraception at first intercourse was reported more often by respondents who gave being drunk as their main reason for sex.’

Ann Furedi, chief executive of BPAS, said:

‘Women can have unintended pregnancies for a number of reasons, which is why it is important that emergency contraception and abortion are available to those who need it. If women are less likely to use contraception when they are drunk, surely it is good news that they are able to access the morning after pill when they sober up?’

Legacy of the ladette: Now alarming rise in teenage promiscuity and abortions is linked to women’s binge drinking, by Sophie Borland. Daily Mail, 21 August 2010

Alcohol misuse, sexual risk behaviour and adverse sexual health outcomes: evidence from Britain’s national probability sexual behaviour surveys. Aicken CR, Nardone A, Mercer CH. Journal of Public Health (Oxf). 2010 Aug 12.