Even if the failure rate of any particular method is 1% or less, the law of large numbers means that, with tens of millions of people using contraceptives regularly, there will inevitably be several hundred thousand unplanned pregnancies.
This is only partially reporting the statistics. McCain is arguing that if 100 girls used birth control and had sex, one of them would get pregnant. FAIL!
The fact is, the 1% chance means that 1% of girls that take the birth control are not receptive to its effect.
So if 100 girls are taking a certain birth control that is "99% effective" that means 1 girl in the group will not cease to ovulate successfully even though she is on the birth control. She won't necessarily get pregnant! She could have sex hundreds of times, and just by a fluke, none of her partner's sperm could find her egg. She could miss a period. She could be an athlete, and not ovulate at all. She could inadvertantly use the rhythm method and simply not have sex during her receptive time. And most importantly of all is the idea that an estimated 2/3 of all fertilized eggs self-abort without any external help.
So if 10 million girls are having sex while taking a 99% effective birth control, it does not follow that hundreds of thousands are having unplanned pregnancies. It just means that 1% of them could potentially get pregnant.
Normally I'd let this go, as people with no science background who are normally happy enough to look things up on wikipedia and call themselves an experts are promptly ignored by us with advanced graduate degrees in science, but when he drops his derisive third update, I have to defend a thinking man from the ignorant.
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