A study geared toward sexually active young teens in St. Louis included offering free birth control and determined the effects of long versus short-term contraception.

Of the 1,404 participants, aged 14-19, 72 percent chose long-acting birth control, The New York Times reported.

The study also looked at the substantial costs related to teen births, including public assistance, health care costs and income losses because of lower educational attainment and reduced earning potential.

The U.S. has a rate of three in 10 girls and women who are pregnant before 20, which is significantly higher than in other rich countries.

Using long-acting and reversible birth control methods is receiving a new push from experts.

While the Affordable Care Act does cover the contraception and should be able to provide it for free to teenagers, many pediatricians are not trained in how to insert these contraceptives.

Isabel Sawhill, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said that insurance provided low rates for counseling, which could deter the willingness of a doctor to spend time doing it.

Yet the benefits of the long-acting birth control are overwhelming.

Pregnancy and abortion rates reduced to less than a quarter the rates of sexually experienced teenagers nationally.

Yet there are some critics who site cultural and political issues with introducing the contraception to young teens.

The idea has typically been to promote abstinence or deter the youngest of teens from having sex until a more mature age.

If long-acting contraception was promoted, it would undoubtedly spark debate.

"If it were universally adopted, that would be a great thing because we would have far fewer people at risk for unintended pregnancy," said Dr. Irwin Redlener, the president of the Children's Health Fund and a pediatrics professor at Columbia University, who was not involved with the research or the guidelines. "The problem is we immediately confront ideological and personal opinions whether or not even promotion of these efforts would be encouraging sexual behavior. I think you're going to see a lot of pushback here."