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Contraception or abortion? Inaccurate descriptions of emergency contraception in newspaper articles, 1992-2002
Sandi L Pruitt1, Patricia Dolan Mullen
1Department of Health Promotion and Health Education, The University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center School of Public Health, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
Background:
Media portrayals of emergency contraception (EC) may influence public health policy and the public's acceptance of this reproductive health option.
Objectives:
We investigated the accuracy of newspaper coverage of EC, 1992-2002.
Methods:
We conducted a content analysis of a sample of 1077 articles in 113 newspapers discussing both EC and abortion and determined the frequency of confusion between the two.
Results:
Of all articles, 44.5% (n = 479) included at least one instance of confusion between EC and medical abortion. Inaccurate portrayal of the mode of action of EC as medical abortion occurred in 31.8% (n = 343) of articles; 13.1% (n = 141) inappropriately applied terms such as "abortifacient postcoital contraceptives" for EC.
Conclusions:
Errors were prevalent, persisted over time and may have contributed to incorrect beliefs about a form of contraception that is used infrequently, despite its potential to deter unintended pregnancy and abortion.
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