Tao asserted that the undergraduate community has more unplanned pregnancies than others. However, when I asked her how many of those pregnancies are aborted, how many end in miscarriages, and how many result in birth defects, she was unsure. However, Dr. Rosenthal asserts that only a small percentage of Harvard students have unwanted pregnancies and that this percentage is getting smaller each year. He attributed the decreasing number of unplanned pregnancies to a rise in awareness about pregnancy and contraception, and noted that a very large number of students come to UHS to find out about getting on the pill. UHS also provides the morning-after pill and abortion referrals.
Female students are aware of their options and take control of their reproductive futures.
In the state of Massachusetts, there were 29,293 legal abortions performed in 1996. Women between the ages of 20 and 24 obtained 8,230 abortions. Women in the 18-19 age group obtained 2,857 abortions. These figures show that many unmarried, college-age women do take advantage of their legal right to choose, rather than follow through with an unplanned pregnancy. I don't point this out to advocate abortion in the case of possible birth defects, but rather to point out that women do have options that help them evaluate whether or not they need to be preparing for pregnancy.