Survey: Conspiracy Theories Affect Birth Control Use Among Blacks

A new survey suggests that conspiracy theories still affect the use of birth control by black men and women.

In the survey of 500 black Americans, only half believed that the government tells the truth about the safety and side effects of new birth control methods.

One-third of respondents to the telephone survey said that medical institutions use poor and minority people as "guinea pigs" to try out new birth control methods, said study authors Sheryl Thorburn of Oregon State University and Laura Bogart of the Rand Corp.

The findings are published in the August issue of the journal Health Education and Behavior.

Black men who strongly believed that the government does not tell the truth about birth control safety were less likely to use any birth control method. Women with the same strong beliefs were less likely to use birth control methods prescribed by a physician, such as the contraceptive pill and devices like Norplant.

However, nearly 80 percent of those surveyed said they were currently using birth control, according to a news release.

Some of the people surveyed also believed that the government uses birth control as a way to control the black population in the United States. Almost one-fourth of those surveyed agreed that "poor and minority women are sometimes forced to be sterilized by the government," while 22 percent agreed that "the government's family-planning policies are intended to control the number of black people."

Thorburn said conspiracy theories about birth control could stem from "broader medical mistrust" of the government by black men and women, fueled by past history such as the infamous Tuskegee syphilis experiments between 1932 and 1972.

"Conspiracy beliefs do not occur in a vacuum," Thorburn said. "The United States has a long history of efforts to control the fertility of African-American women." She said that such efforts range from slavery to coercive sterilization programs as recent as the 1970s.

The researchers said community-based pregnancy prevention programs that address conspiracy theories directly could be the best way to overcome suspicion of the government and medical establishment.