Unintended Pregnancy and Abortion in the US Navy, 2016

The unintended pregnancy rate in the US military is higher than among civilians. While 42% of unintended pregnancies end in abortion among civilian women, there are no data on the prevalence of abortion in the military overall or by service branch.

This analysis was conducted to estimate unintended pregnancy rates and the percentage of unintended pregnancies that resulted in abortion among active-duty US Navy members aged 44 years or younger reporting female gender in 2016.

Cross-sectional survey data from the 2016 Navy Pregnancy and Parenthood Survey, collected from August to November 2016.

Our sample included 3,423 active-duty US Navy members aged 44 years or younger reporting female gender, generated from a stratified random sample of 38% of all active-duty Navy women in pay grades E2-E9 and O1-O5 in 2016; the survey had a 20% response rate for females.

We calculated pregnancy and unintended pregnancy rates, the percentage of pregnancies that were unintended, and the percentage of unintended pregnancies resulting in birth and abortion in the prior fiscal year.

Overall, the self-reported unintended pregnancy rate was 52 per 1,000 participants and 38.1% of pregnancies were unintended. The adjusted unintended pregnancy rate accounting for abortion underreporting was 68 per 1,000 participants. Unintended pregnancy rates were highest among individuals who were younger (aged 18-24) and in enlisted pay grades, compared to their counterparts. Six percent reported their unintended pregnancy resulted in abortion. Six respondents reported becoming pregnant while deployed; none of these pregnancies resulted in abortion.

In this first study to report on abortion prevalence among US servicemembers, we found the proportion of unintended pregnancies resulting in abortion among a sample of US Navy members in 2016 was much lower than civilians, yet unintended pregnancy rates were higher.