re: Is birth control really only 99% effective or is that more a safety barrier from lawsuits?

Yes, it’s really only 99% effective. As with any consumer product, failures can and do happen — even when used as directed by a married, substance-unimpaired couple. If you don’t believe me then I’ll introduce you to two of my children, Low-Dose Estrogen Pill and Broken Condom.

We were actually trying to conceive the other kid (Planned For Once), which was a novel experiment that lasted all of two weeks. This turned out to be the sum total of all the time we spent trying over 20+ years of marriage and 3 live births.

There are normal fertile couples, and then there’s that ultra-fertile subset that likely accounts for a significant proportion of the 1% annual “perfect use” failure rate. You’re welcome.