Colorado’s Effort Against Teenage Pregnancies Is a Startling Success

[applegrove]

Colorado’s Effort Against Teenage Pregnancies Is a Startling Success

By SABRINA TAVERNISE at the New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/06/science/colorados-push-against-teenage-pregnancies-is-a-startling-success.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=1

"SNIP................



WALSENBURG, Colo. — Over the past six years, Colorado has conducted one of the largest ever real-life experiments with long-acting birth control. If teenagers and poor women were offered free intrauterine devices and implants that prevent pregnancy for years, state officials asked, would those women choose them?

They did in a big way, and the results were startling. The birthrate for teenagers across the state plunged by 40 percent from 2009 to 2013, while their rate of abortions fell by 42 percent, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. There was a similar decline in births for another group particularly vulnerable to unplanned pregnancies: unmarried women under 25 who have not finished high school.

“Our demographer came into my office with a chart and said, ‘Greta, look at this, we’ve never seen this before,’ ” said Greta Klingler, the family planning supervisor for the public health department. “The numbers were plummeting.”

The changes were particularly pronounced in the poorest areas of the state, places like Walsenburg, a small city in Southern Colorado where jobs are scarce and unplanned births come often to the young. Hope Martinez, a 20-year-old nursing home receptionist here, recently had a small rod implanted under the skin of her upper arm to prevent pregnancy for three years. She has big plans — to marry, to move West, and to become a dental hygienist.



................SNIP"

[Hydra]

1. Zomg! Look! If you give people a CHOICE

Then certain (positive) things happen! And if you take that away, something else (negative) happens!

It's almost magical...almost like...science!

[applegrove]

2. +1

[Live and Learn]

8. +2 nt

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

3. K&FuckinR. nt

[SusanCalvin]

4. Now there they go being reasonable....

[PatrickforO]

5. Makes me proud to be a Coloradan.

This is VERY well done! And scalable in other states.

[onecaliberal]

6. Well done Colorado.

This demonstrates the republican true motivation for regulating contraceptives. They want to control women.

[passiveporcupine]

7. Wisdom

It is something to aspire to.

[Marrah_G]

9. awesome news

[Live and Learn]

10. I am sure the "pro-lifers" will scoff at paying for this

proving that they really aren't so much against abortion but pro control of women.

[colorado_ufo]

11. Hubby and I made a smart decision almost half a century ago -

move to Colorado!

[AngryAmish]

12. Ok. This works. Take it nationwide.

[eppur_se_muova]

13. An anti-abortion policy that works -- and won't be overturned by the courts !

I'm sure the evangelical "pro-life" supporters will back this 100 % !!

[MyOwnPeace]

14. THIS alone........

should make ANY legislator want to support the program:

"The state health department estimated that every dollar spent on the long-acting birth control initiative saved $5.85 for the state’s Medicaid program, which covers more than three-quarters of teenage pregnancies and births."

But, "NO, we can't be allowing these people to go out and be harlots and "takers" from our fine AMERIKAN community!"

[LWolf]

15. Now that there is evidence that it works,

this kind of program not only needs to be wide-spread, it needs to be fully funded. Reading further answered my question about access; if we want to reduce teen pregnancy, teen girls need access without parental approval.

Let's hope Colorado will figure out how to keep this program funded.

The private grant that funds the state program has started to run out, and while many young women are expected to be covered under the health care law, some plans have required payment or offered only certain methods, problems the Obama administration is trying to correct. What is more, only new plans are required to provide free contraception, so women on plans that predate the law may not qualify. (In 2014, about a quarter of people covered through their employers were on grandfathered plans, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.) Advocates also worry that teenagers — who can currently get the devices at clinics confidentially — may be less likely to get the devices through their parents’ insurance. Long-acting devices can cost between $800 and $900.

“There’s no lifeboat with the Affordable Care Act,” said Liz Romer, a nurse practitioner who runs the Adolescent Family Planning Clinic at Children’s Hospital Colorado, which went from giving out 30 long-acting devices a year in 2009 to more than 2,000 in 2013.

[fizzgig]

17. it won't happen until we take back the state senate

the pukes who blocked it make me want to scream.

[hifiguy]

16. Facts + logic + common sense + science

= zillions

Screeching about jebus = still ZERO.

[Jade Fox]

18. Good on ya, Colorado......

A rare instance of legislative sanity in regards to this issue......