Women Sue Company After An Error In Its Birth Control Gets Them Pregnant

Well, this is scary: Over 100 women are suing the birth control company Qualitest Pharmaceuticals after packages it mislabeled in 2011 allegedly led to a number of unplanned pregnancies.

The company issued a recall four years ago when it learned many of the packs had serious labeling errors. The packs were labeled in ways instructing women to take placebo pills when they were supposed to be taking hormone pills.

The placebo pills are meant to be taken when women are on their periods, simply to keep them in the habit of taking a pill every day, so it's not exactly surprising this screwup led to some pretty major repercussions.

There are reportedly 94 women who gave birth to unplanned children, 17 who seemingly had abortions and two women who didn't become pregnant involved in this lawsuit, CNN reports.

The women are suing for the cost of raising unplanned children, which the US Department of Agriculture estimates is $245,340 per kid from childhood into adulthood.

Before you freak out and head straight to the drugstore for condoms, keep in mind this is a very rare mistake -- oral birth control is actually extremely effective.

While your resistance to birth control does build up over time, according to The New York Times, if you take your birth control pill perfectly for 10 years, the highest chance you have of getting pregnant is .03 percent.

That's not too terrifying, right?

Citations: Over 100 Women With Unplanned Pregnancy Sue Birth Control Maker Over Error In Packaging (Medical Daily), Birth control packaging error leads to lawsuit (CNN)