Women should know too that any amount of alcohol is unwise during pregnancy. Again, because a woman may be pregnant and not realize it, a woman who could be pregnant and is drinking could be doing harm and not even know it.

Many birth defects form during the embryonic period, before a woman even realizes she's missed her first period.

What you see in these results is that helping women avoid unintended pregnancy is not just a blue-state issue.

We know that women who become depressed during pregnancy may not take appropriate care of themselves or even make it to prenatal appointments, and there is evidence that maternal depression itself has an adverse effect on fetal and neonatal well being. While this report does not offer explicit guidelines for individual patients, the study unequivocally suggests that women taking antidepressants who anticipate pregnancy need to address with their doctors not only potential risks to their babies if they continue taking the drugs but also the risk that their disease may recur if they stop antidepressants. Only by considering both sides of this risk/benefit equation can patients make informed decisions.

There's no easy way out, there's no simple solution to a woman who wants to be protected against pregnancy, but doesn't want any side effects.

Pregnancy is of course confined to women, but it is in other ways significantly different from the typical covered disease or disability.