The number of abortions in the United States has risen in recent years, and one hypothesis circulating among researchers is that a cultural backlash against hormonal birth control is producing more unintended pregnancies. Whether that is true has not been established, and the researchers closest to the data disagree.
The question surfaced in NPR reporting published this week, which laid out the competing explanations without resolving them. The disagreement is instructive, because it shows what the available evidence can and cannot answer.
