Mar 10, 2014 05:15 PM EDT By Jaleesa Baulkman, UniversityHerald Reporter

There is little evidence to support concerns of increased risky sexual behavior with access to free birth control, according to a recent study UPI reported.

Researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that providing women with birth control does not make them likely to engage in risky sexual behaviors, UPI reported.

"The notion that women will have sex with more partners if you give them free birth control didn't pan out in this study," Jeffrey Peipert, the study's senior author and the Robert J. Terry Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, said in  statement. "Providing no-cost contraception did not result in riskier sexual behavior."

For the study, researchers reviewed the health records of 9,256 women aged 14 to 45 who were at a high risk for accidental pregnancy that took part in the Contraceptive CHOICE Project in St. Louis. They educated them about the benefits of long-term contraceptives such as intrauterine devices and implants over short-term ones such as birth control pills, patches and rings. The women were allowed to pick whichever contraceptive they wanted free of charge.

Researchers found that despite receiving free contraceptives, the number of women with multiple sexual partners decreased over the course of the study from 5.2 percent to 3.3 percent, Counsel and Heal reported.

Seventy percent of the women did not have more or fewer sexual partners throughout the study.  Thirteen to 14 percent stated that they slept with less people while 16 percent said they had more sexual partners.

"It's not the contraception that drives their sexual behavior," Peirpert is quoted as saying by Medical Xpress.

Researchers also did not find an increase in sexually transmitted infections at the end of the study. They concluded that not having any kind of contraceptive could be more harmful for these women.

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