Email, James Trussell, professor of economics and public affairs, Princeton University, Feb. 6, 2014

11:47 a.m.

Stats do not exist for most countries. Even in the UK we have estimates only for Edinburgh. That said, the percentage of pregnancies that is unintended is very high in the US  (and probably the highest in any Western industrialized society).

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James Trussell

Professor of Economics and Public Affairs

Faculty Associate, Office of Population Research

Wallace Hall, Princeton University, Princeton NJ 08544

Visiting Professor, The Hull York Medical School

Tel: 609-333-6964; Fax: 609-258-1039

Email: trussell@princeton.edu

Website: http://www.princeton.edu/~trussell/

From: Selby, Gardner (CMG-Austin) [mailto:wgselby@statesman.com]

Sent: Thursday, February 06, 2014 12:43 PM

To: James Trussell

Subject: Texas reporter, urgent inquiry

I noted with interest an editorial you wrote for Contraception in 2008 including this: “While 49% of pregnancies in the United States are unintended, the corresponding percentage in France is only 33% [29], and in Edinburgh, Scotland, it is only 28% [30,31].”

I write, now, because we are trying to fact-check a recent claim: The "U.S. has the highest unintended pregnancy rate of any Western industrialized country." To this moment, I have been unable to find country-to-country statistics on such rates. I am familiar with the global/regional approach aired by researchers for the Guttmacher Institute.

?

Thank you.

wgs

W. Gardner Selby

PolitiFact Texas