Hi folks,
On this important day, the 42nd anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Griswold v. Connecticut decision, I was honored to join the Women Donors Network and Communications Consortium Media Center as they launched their new website BirthControlWatch.org.
I spoke about my Prevention First Act, which serves an innovative and comprehensive way to protect women’s reproductive health, decrease the spread of STDs, and reduce the number of unintended pregnancies.
Prevention First achieves this goal by providing comprehensive access to all forms of contraception and sex education. I wanted to take a moment to review why it is necessary and what it will accomplish.
Why Prevention First, and why now?
Today the U.S. has one of the highest rates of unintended pregnancies among industrialized nations. Each year, half of the three million pregnancies nationwide are unintended. Half of those pregnancies, in turn, end in abortion. 1 in 3 girls in America become pregnant before the age of 20. The vast majority of those pregnancies are unintended. Additionally, the U.S. has one of the highest rates of sexually transmitted diseases among industrialized nations.
So, after realizing this, if we ask ourselves why Prevention First, and why now, then the answer should be as clear as day. If we want to reduce the number of abortions and the spread of STDs in this country, we must empower women through education and access to contraception.
And that is precisely what the Prevention First Act does.
I first introduced this legislation over five years ago as a revolutionary approach to reducing unintended pregnancies. And today marks the 42nd anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision Griswold v. Connecticut which effectively legalized the right of women to access contraception. This decision was groundbreaking. It allowed women control over their own bodies and to choose the size and spacing of their family. Make no mistake: access to contraception single-handedly improved women’s equality in American Society.
But throughout the years, prominent conservatives have sought to limit women’s rights and freedoms by imposing stricter penalties and enacting laws to criminalize doctors and women.
At the same time, these leaders have done next to nothing to ensure that millions of unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases are prevented in the first place. In fact, they have time and again done just the reverse. Clearly, if they are opposed to abortion, they should be for preventing unintended pregnancies. It’s just plain common sense.
That is why for most women, including women who want to have children, contraception is not an option; it is a basic health care necessity. Contraceptive use saves scarce public health dollars. For every $1 spent on providing family planning services, an estimated $3.80 is saved in Medicaid expenditures for pregnancy-related and newborn care.
Many poor and low-income women cannot afford to purchase contraceptive services and supplies on their own. Half of all women who are sexually active, but do not want to get pregnant, need publicly funded services to help them gain access to public health programs like Medicaid and Title X, the national family planning program. Each year, publicly funded family planning services help prevent an estimated one million unplanned pregnancies and 630,000 abortions. Unfortunately, these programs are struggling to meet the growing demand for subsidized family planning services without corresponding increases in funding. I am pleased to say that the Prevention First Act authorizes increased funding for Title X clinics and strengthens states’ coverage of Medicaid family planning services.
Improved access to emergency contraception also goes a long way toward reducing the staggering rates of unintended pregnancy and abortion in this country. If taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex, emergency contraception can prevent 89 percent of unintended pregnancies. The Alan Guttmacher Institute estimates that increased use of EC accounted for up to 43 percent of the total decline in abortion rates between 1994 and 2000. In addition, emergency contraception is often the only contraceptive option for the 300,000 women who are reported to be raped each year. The Prevention First Act requires that hospitals receiving federal funds provide victims of sexual assault with information and access to emergency contraception.
Despite the fact that contraceptives have a proven track record of enhancing the health of women and children, preventing unintended pregnancy, and reducing the need for abortion, far too many insurance policies exclude this vital coverage. Women of reproductive age currently spend 68% more in out-of-pocket health care costs than men, much of which is due to reproductive health-related supplies and services. To remedy this problem, the Prevention First Act requires that private health plans cover FDA-approved prescription contraceptives and related medical services.
We must break the unfounded and inaccurate stereotype that improving access to contraceptive services and information causes non-sexually active teens to start having sex. Instead, teens need information to help them both postpone sexual activity and to protect themselves if they do become sexually active. A November 2006 study of declining pregnancy rates among teens concluded that the reduction in teen pregnancy between 1995 and 2002 is primarily the result of increased use of contraceptives.
The Prevention First Act provides funding to public and private entities to promote the establishment or expansion of their teenage pregnancy prevention programs. The bill also provides for comprehensive, medically accurate sex education programs that teach young people about abstinence, health, and contraceptives. Moreover, Prevention First requires federally funded programs that distribute information on the use of contraceptives to ensure that the information is medically accurate and includes health benefits and failure rates.
Reducing unintended pregnancy and infection with STDs are important public health goals. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention included family planning in their published list of the "Ten Great Public Health Achievements in the 20th Century."
The Prevention First Act will improve access to family planning services for all women in need, and will go a long way in fulfilling the promise of this important public health achievement. By emphasizing prevention first, this legislation will help protect women’s reproductive health, reduce unintended pregnancies, decrease the spread of STDs, and give women the tools they need to make the best decisions possible for themselves.
We still have a long way to go, but websites like BirthControlWatch.org and legislation like the Prevention First Act are an important step to ensure every woman across the country has easy and affordable access to contraception while also being given the knowledge they need to make informed decisions about their reproductive health.
-- LMS