Be Careful What you Ask For: Unplanned Pregnancies and Abortions are Up

[TexasTowelie]

By Dr. Brian Carr
President, Behavioral Health Associates, Lubbock, Texas, 1991-Present
Chairman, City of Lubbock Board of Health, 2013
Submitted on August 1, 2013 - 7:28 am

Thanks to the Extreme Right wing of the Republican Party abortions are up and women’s health care is suffering. A recently released study found that in 2010, publicly-funded family planning services saved the government $10.5 billion dollars, along with helping women prevent 2.2 million unplanned pregnancies and close to 760,000 abortions. Of course, all this was before those on the Extreme Right started their campaign against familiy planning services. The success of this effort across our country and here in Texas has stripped away this benefit and left misery in its wake.

Now who could be unhappy about decreasing unplanned pregnancies and abortions? Yes, you are correct, the Extreme Right who demand that something be done.

In the name of austerity, Republicans have been working hard to destroy the federal Title X program, which provides funding for these programs and health centers. In 2010, these health centers served 4.7 million women across the country, helping to prevent 1.2 million unintended pregnancies which would have resulted (based on historical statistical data trends) in an estimated 590,000 unplanned births and 400,000 abortions.

An additional figure shows that taxpayers saved $5.68 for every dollar the government spent on contraceptives that year. Studies have repeatedly found that women having access to contraception has a positive impact. 66 studies over the course of three decades show that a woman’s ability to control her own fertility affects not just birth rates, but also mental health, children’s well-being, and general “life satisfaction.”

“The scientific evidence strongly confirms what has long been obvious to women,” Adam Sonfield, lead author of the review said. “Contraceptive use, and the ensuing ability to decide whether and when to have children, is linked to a host of benefits for themselves, the quality of their relationships, and the well-being of their children”.

So with such obvious good news for both pro-life and pro-choice why did Texas defund these programs given the obvious consequences of increased unplanned pregnancies and abortions?

What is revealed is that there are those on the Extreme Right who are not actually pro-life so much as they are anti-contraception. For others the issue is the suppression of women’s rights and a return to a more polite society where women submitted to men and were second class citizens.

Facts, and outcomes, are of little concern to those on the Extreme Right. The best approach is to uncover their true agenda and call them out for the repressive, bigoted, fools that they are.

TAGS:

LubbockOnline Blog
anti-contraception
Extreme Right
heartless
Lubbock
mental
need to keep em barefoot and pregnant
no rubbers for the rain
no soup for you
Perry needs a special session and a siren
Pro-Life till Birth
Texas

http://lubbockonline.com/interact/blog-post/dr-brian-carr/2013-08-01/be-careful-what-you-ask-unplanned-pregnancies-and

[freshwest]

1. Good clear thinking from Texas. Gotta go blue to get sanity back.

[Igel]

2. Oh. The only fact is in the article's title.

Oddly, I'd have hoped that since he said things about the savings predicted from a model in 2010 he'd have said something about the increase in 2011, saying what the policies were that caused the increase and showing some causality.

Instead we get a claim about badness and praise for goodness. I have to assume (to keep from thinking this blurb was complete waste of electrical potential and paper pulp) that adjacent or on an opposing page was an article that contained the relevant facts.

[Gormy Cuss]

3. It's a blog entry, similar to an editorial and therefore not bound to be fact laden

but if you want to see the evidence read Adam Sonfields reports at the Guttmacher Institute.
This one, for example:
http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/social-economic-benefits.pdf