A common birth control patch, Ortho Evra, has been the target of intense scrutiny in the past several years, because many young women have developed — or died as a result of — side effects that were previously overlooked.

Zakiya Kennedy, a freshman at Berkeley College in New York, is one of 23 women whose deaths have reportedly been caused by Ortho Evra, according to Jim Edwards of Brandweek, a business journal. The number of women who have died after using Ortho Evra has not yet been made public, according to Edwards, because of the ongoing litigation between the drug’s manufacturer, Johnson and Johnson, and the 1,500 women and their families who are suing because of the adverse effects they have experienced.

Kennedy was a healthy, 18-year-old woman with aspirations of becoming a member of the fashion world; she even had an audition scheduled for America’s Next Top Model. Kennedy died of a pulmonary thromboembolism (i.e. a blood clot in the lungs) caused by Ortho Evra.

This raises a serious question in regards to the safety of Ortho Evra. Kennedy died back in 2004, when the safety of Ortho Evra was first seriously questioned, but even after more and more women have died or suffered severe health consequences, such as strokes or heart attacks, and the number of lawsuits are ever increasing, Ortho Evra continues to be prescribed and women continue to be injured.

According to an article by Jeff Rossen and Robert Powell of NBC News, women who use Ortho Evra are 12 times more likely to have a stroke and 18 times more likely to have blood clots, in comparison to the pill.

Rossen and Powell reported that just last year another college freshman, Adrianna Duffy, died of a blood clot while on Ortho Evra. Again, Duffy was a healthy, 18 year old woman. The difference is Duffy’s death could have been prevented had the FDA pulled Ortho Evra off the market after learning of the previous problems associated with the patch five years earlier. Instead, Ortho Evra continues to be prescribed because doctors trust the FDA’s ruling.

Back in 2000 Dr. Joel Lippman, who was the vice president of clinical trials on Ortho Evra, voiced concerns regarding the safety of Ortho Evra; Johnson and Johnson ignored Dr. Lippman’s opinion on the matter, and Ortho Evra was officially contrived. In the next 17 months, 9,116 adverse reactions were reported to the FDA, which included everything from nausea to death, according to Edwards.

Rossen and Powell cite experts who attribute many of these problems to Ortho Evra’s high estrogen content, which is 60 percent higher than the pill.

Proponents for Ortho Evra argue that it has helped more women than it has hurt — but at what cost? Surely there is a way to make medicine both safe and effective.

Because of the pending litigation it is unknown how many women have actually died from Ortho Evra, and it may be impossible to ever know. There is the possibility that many families never connected the dots of their loved one’s death or they didn’t have the means to attempt to bring down the renowned Johnson and Johnson in a lawsuit.

But ultimately it is still a woman’s choice what kind of birth control she chooses, if at all. So I pose this question ladies: Would having a child really alter your future so drastically that you would rather assume you won’t be a statistic of Ortho Evra, like Zakiya or Adrianna? Consider the vast array of options available today, and then consider the risks associated with Ortho Evra; your health is in your hands.