The rate of subsidised contraceptive pill subscriptions has fallen more than 40 per cent in seven years.
Australian women are behind the rest of the developed world when it comes to access to long-lasting, effective contraception, a review has found.
The report from Family Planning NSW found two-thirds of women of reproductive age use contraception, but they appear to be increasingly paying for expensive new contraceptive pills out of their own pockets.
Access to emergency contraception such as the so-called “morning after pill” has done little to reduce the abortion rate – estimated at about one in four pregnancies – and access to abortion remains legally and financially difficult.
Family Planning NSW chief executive Ann Brassil said contraception use and abortion were still taboo issues for many people.