The Affordable Care Act will still provide free contraceptives, but advocates for Colorado’s program said they fear teenagers won’t take advantage of that because the information wouldn’t be confidential from their parents if they are on their insurance plans.
Advertisement
A senate committee killed a bill, in a 3-2 party-line vote, that would have provided $5 million to the Colorado Family Planning Initiative program.
DENVER – A much-heralded Colorado effort credited with significantly reducing teen pregnancy and abortion rates is searching for new funding after GOP lawmakers declined to provide taxpayer dollars to keep it going. As per data, it worked.
During the period from 2009 to 2013, births to teen mothers dropped by 40% and abortions dropped 35%, the state says. They stated that the motivation behind wanting to participate to the program was that they did not want to have a child at such an early age.
“Of course, cost continues to be a major factor in a woman’s consistent use of contraception, and many women simply cannot afford the out-of-pocket costs associated with contraceptives, OTC or not”, the group said in a statement. He explained, “Making sure Colorado women have access to safe and effective contraception is an investment in their futures and ours”.
The resulting decline in abortions and pregnancies was most pronounced in the poorest parts of Colorado, where in 2009 half of all first births happened before women turned 21.
Isabel Sawhill, an economist at the Brookings Institution, told The New York Times, “If we want to reduce poverty, one of the simplest, fastest and cheapest things we could do would be to make sure that as few people as possible become parents before they actually want to”.
New Zealand has the second-highest teen pregnancy rate in the developed world after the United States, according to a report by the Social Policy Evaluation and Research Unit.
This has in turn serious repercussion on maternal and child health outcomes, as well as broader societal and economic implications – both at household and national level.
Statistics from the USA Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Adolescent Health for 2012 showed West Virginia was ranked 6th for teen births and 12th for teen pregnancies nationally. But experts have affirmed that the timing and the rate at which reductions are taking place in Colorado indicate that the state’s program was the main reason.
If you favor a different kind of bottom line, try this number: The state of Colorado estimates that it has saved more than $80 million in Medicaid expenditures because of the program.
Hope Martinez, a 20-year-old nursing home receptionist, recently had a small metal rod implanted under the skin of her upper arm to prevent pregnancy for three years.
Advertisement
“Many primary-care physicians aren’t necessarily trained in how easy it is to insert an IUD compared to writing a prescription for birth control”, Wolk said.
