The evidence mounts on the benefits of preventing unintended pregnancy.

Preventing unplanned pregnancies and enabling women and couples to time their childbearing are central public health goals. Exercising this control is a goal of most individuals and has substantial benefits for the health of women and their children. Yet unplanned pregnancy also has societal-level connections to everything from basic demographic patterns to women’s educational attainment to families’ economic well-being. Among the best-studied societal impacts are the health care costs from unintended pregnancy that are borne by public and private payers. Three articles in the current issue of Contraception build on the existing literature and provide a roadmap to reducing these individual and societal burdens.