History Main / ButWeUsedACondom

* You know it just had to be FreakierThanFiction in order to be {{inverted|Trope}}. In the case of 1997's State of Louisiana v. Frisard, a hospital visitor met a nurse's aide and used a condom while she performed fellatio on him. He didn't know she would artificially inseminate herself with the used condom. In a legal precedent, the court ordered him to pay child support. So when it comes to pregnancy, oral sex is an inversion as it takes a condom to get pregnant.
* One of the reasons why you should never reuse a condom comes from a story of two couples who only had one condom. So Mr. "A" uses it on Girlfriend 1, while Mr. B ''turns it inside-out'' and uses it on Girlfriend 2. The end result is Girlfriend 2 gets pregnant, by Mr. A.

There is a mod for ''VideoGame/TheSims4'' called Wicked Whims which adds explicit sex to the game (rather then the base game's PG-13 version). It also tries to create a fairly realistic pregnancy system and actually handles this trope fairly well: All types of birth control have a very small chance of failing, but since this mod also simulates the menstrual cycle with a Sims pregnancy chance going up and down across the duration this doesn't actually mean a Sims is guaranteed to get pregnant if something does go wrong.

* In ''Film/{{Grease}}'' Rizzo and Kenickie are [[AutoErotica having sex in his car]], and the condom breaks. Kenickie says it's because he bought it when he was in 7th grade (they are now seniors in high school). [[WhatAnIdiot They continue to have sex]]. Shortly afterwards, they break up, and Rizzo suspects she's pregnant. [[spoiler:It turns out to be a false alarm, likely a result of the stress related to the breakup.]]

* And of course, heavy overuse of the LawOfInverseFertility, failing to take into account that even with no birth control at all, the likelihood of a sexual encounter resulting in pregnancy is lesser than not resulting in it.

* And of course, heavy overuse of the LawOfInverseFertility, failing to take into account that even with no birth control at all, the likelihood of a sexual encounter -- with a perfectly fertile couple at the optimum fertility time -- resulting in pregnancy is about 30%,but for most of the menstrual cycle the chance of getting pregnant is much, much lower and actually amounts to 0% in postovulatory phase (the trick is to track your fertile and infertile days properly, this is what natural family planning methods, based on fertility symptoms, are about).

* And of course, heavy overuse of the LawOfInverseFertility, failing to take into account that even with no birth control at all, the likelihood of a sexual encounter -- with a perfectly fertile couple at the optimum fertility time -- resulting in pregnancy is about 30%,but during infertile days od menstrual cycle the chance of gettting pregmamy is 0%.

* And of course, heavy overuse of the LawOfInverseFertility, failing to take into account that even with no birth control at all, the likelihood of a sexual encounter -- with a perfectly fertile couple at the optimum fertility time -- resulting in pregnancy is about 5%.

* ''Series/{{Lost}}'': Aaron is conceived despite Claire being on the pill, leading the father to accuse her of [[TheBabyTrap getting pregnant on purpose]].

* In the ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'' story, ''Fanfic/LegacyTotalDrama'', Lindsay had an unexpected pregnancy with a longtime boyfriend despite presumably using some form of contraception on a regular basis.

'''Ross:''' No, they don't! ''[storms off to his bedroom; pause; returns with a box of condoms in hand]'' WELL THEY SHOULD PUT IT IN HUGE BLOCK LETTERS!!!

-->'''[=SpongeBob=]''': But HOW can you be pregnant!? You said you had a sponge in your- [[DontExplainTheJoke Oh, you meant me.]]

* The Hong Kong actor and stuntman, Creator/VincentZhao, has publicly admitted that his first child, a daughter, was born during his wushu academy days before he graduated or was even married.

There is a mod for the ''Sims4'' called Wicked Whims which adds explicit sex to the game (rather then the base game's PG13 version). It also tries to create a fairly realistic pregnancy system and actually handles this trope fairly well: All types of birth control have a very small chance of failing, but since this mod also simulates the menstrual cycle with a Sims pregnancy chance going up and down across the duration this doesn't actually mean a Sims is garinteed to get pregnant if something does go wrong.

* In ''WebComic/KevinAndKell'' Lindesfarne and Fenton are surprised to find out they're expecting, since they've been using protection. Then they remembered something: Lindesfarne's a ''hedgehog''. A puncture was bound to happen sooner or later. The look on Lindesfarne's face when she realizes that makes the scene.

* In ''Webcomic/DocRat'', Daniella got pregnant shortly after she and Ben got married. Even though she was on the Pill.

* ''Literature/QueenOfZazzau'': Princess Amina starts a love affair with her bodyguard's brother Suleyman and tries to use the rhythm method to avoid pregnancy, but becomes pregnant anyway within a couple of years (shortly after agreeing to marry him). Then he's murdered by Nupe soldiers, and the shock causes her to miscarry.

** In ''Furious'' and ''Defender'', Kris reestablishes contact with a LostColony of humans on the other side of the galaxy, which includes her long-lost great-grandmother. It turns out Great-Grandma was pregnant when she was lost (and therefore Kris has an additional batch of cousins after the intervening decades), despite contraceptive implants being standard gear for women in TheVerse. Grandma comments to her then-husband Ray Longknife, "The implants are 99% effective, but you were 100% effective."

* ''WesternAnimation/FIsForFamily'': Season 2 ends with a shot of Smokey poking holes in random condoms before he refills the dispensers just for laughs, which directly results in Francine getting pregnant since she and Frank had been using that condom brand while he was working for Smokey. In season 3 and 4, there are several scenes showing a large increase in pregnancies in Smokeys neighborhood as well.

But We Used a Condom is a standard feature of just about any modern, socially conscious show. Sometimes used after sex as AnAesop, or to provide a [[CantGetAwayWithNuthin pregnancy/STD scare]] which turns out to be nothing. See also LawOfInverseFertility. The number one cause of SurprisePregnancy.

Could be considered a BrokenAesop, particularly in a country where abstinence-only education is being heavily promoted. While recent studies ''did'' show that about 10% of the condoms produced are faulty, there are elaborate techniques to discover those before they're ''shipped'', leaving only 1 defective condom in 14,000 undiscovered. And it's worth noting that even without any protection whatsoever, even in a perfectly fertile couple at optimum fertility times, a pregnancy is still not 100% guaranteed (in fact, by narrative rules, such a couple [[InverseLawOfFertility have the worst chances of anyone]]); the probability per-encounter is about ''5%''.

Every so often, as in the page quote, someone will throw around the failure rate of various forms of contraception, without distinguishing between "perfect use" (the aforementioned 3%) and "typical use" (somewhere between 15 and 20%). Some people are freaked out by the latter because nobody's perfect, right?! However, condoms are in fact very user-friendly and using them "perfectly" isn't hard at all; health authorities are now pushing for this to be called "correct and consistent" rather than "perfect" use for this reason. What it mostly means is that a new condom is used every time and applied before any penetration occurs[[note]]There are other things to remember: check the expiration date, be careful not to tear the condom when opening the packet, don't use oil-based lube with latex, never ''ever'' reuse condoms, use only one at a time, if you're keeping one [[ReadyForLovemaking ready to go]] in your wallet/pocket/purse/etc., keep it in a protective case to prevent wear and tear, never use a male and female condom together - but the single most important thing really is just "use one every time, before you get started"[[/note]]. "Typical use" factors in ''all'' outcomes, including those when the couple didn't pull it on all the way, put it on after penetration had begun, or even forgot or chose not to wear it "just this once" (that's right, "method failure" statistics can include times when the method wasn't used at all). ''And'' the "failure rate" quoted for contraceptives isn't the chance of failure in a single sex act, but the percentage of couples who get pregnant during a ''year'' on the method.

In other words: condoms are very safe and highly effective for the majority of people (though less so if you don't actually put them on).

Further, there are other methods that can be used along with a condom. Contraceptive film is supposedly good enough to use alone and is a reasonable substitute for the pill. It is inserted into the vagina near the cervix 15 minutes before sex and provides protection for three hours, and is undetectable by either party when in use. [=IUDs=] provide a very good protection from unwanted pregnancy as well, as does the symptothermal method of menstrual cycle observation.
If either of those methods are used in addition to a condom, the possibility of failure drops even closer to zero.

In a great deal of media, the "But We Used A Condom" line is used to promote abstinence by insisting that condoms don't work, so you're better off not engaging in any sexual activities at all -- which admittedly ''is'' the only 100% successful method of birth control. Unfortunately, this often ends up conveying the AccidentalAesop that there's no point in using any protection at all.

See also PregnancyScare, CantGetAwayWithNuthin, and ButICantBePregnant

In a great deal of media, the "But We Used A Condom" line is used to promote abstinence by insisting that condoms don't work, so you're better off not engaging in any sexual activities at all -- which admittedly ''is'' the only 100% successful method of birth control. Unfortunately, this often ends up conveying the message that there's no point in using any protection at all.

* ''Series/BeingHumanUK'': In series three Nina discovers she's pregnant after she and George had sex while in their {{werewolf}} forms. When George finds out he mentions that she's on birth control and Nina bitterly replies that apparently the pill doesn't work on werewolves.

--> Natalie: Hey Dirk. Still getting your mail. It's from the clinic: Somebody got themselves an [[KarmicSTD STD.]]
-->Dirk: I can deal with that.
-->Natalie: Turn the page.
-->Dirk: Aww crap... Damn shower caps.