Sex by Numbers: An Aspirin a Day

A weekly look at sex and culture, by the numbers.

What a week it’s been for sex. We got to hear Rush Limbaugh apologize to “sluts” and it turns out everyone in your yoga class is doing it.

Here’s a few more sex statistics and facts for you this week:

Cost of a year’s supply of hormonal birth control: $160-$600

Average cost of a condom: <$1

Two: number of states that have eliminated their family planning programs within the last year

130,000: low-income Texan women who stand to lose Medicare-funded contraception and examination coverage as a result of the latest round of state budget cuts

$231 million: projected financial burden to state and federal taxpayers as a result of the 20,500 estimated additional babies that will be born as a result

1/4: women of reproductive age who receive health and contraceptive assistance through a publicly supported family planning center

51 to 48: vote on the Blunt Amendment, which failed to clear the Senate last week and would have allowed employers to withhold contraceptive coverage from employees’ health plans

Mallory Ortberg

Mallory resides in San Francisco, California. You can catch her weekly Sex By Numbers column.