An official website of the United States government
Here’s how you know
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
This is Archived content. This content is available for historical purposes only. It may not reflect the current state of science or language from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). For current information, please visit nida.nih.gov.
Almost half of all women in their childbearing years, ages 15 to 44, have used illicit drugs at least once in their lives.
10.3 million women age 12 and older have used at least one illegal drug in the past year.
More than 4.4 million women age 12 and older currently use illegal drugs.
4 million women have taken prescription drugs nonmedically during the past year.
An estimated 221,000 women who gave birth in the United States in 1992 used illicit drugs while they were pregnant.
AIDS is now the fourth leading cause of death among women ages 25 to 44 in the United States.
More than 34,000--about 67 percent--of the AIDS cases among women are drug related.
Sources
1993 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse
NIDA National Pregnancy and Health Survey
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report, June 1994.
