Family Planning Issues

(most recent item first)

Make Birth Control Affordable

July 19, 2011
Op-Ed
New York Times

Vanessa Cullins, vice president for medical affairs at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, provides insights in an Op-Ed column of the New York Times about the importance of making contraceptive care an affordable choice for American women by defining it as presventive health care under the Affordable Care Act of 2010.

My daughter, a divorced mother of three, called me recently to complain about the high cost of birth control. As a physician, I ’m familiar with this problem, yet it never fails to frustrate me. Our health care system could save billions — and improve the health of women and families — by placing birth control within every woman’s reach. Instead, |MORE

More about Dr. Cullins.

Ghananians Uplifted by Smart Investments in Health Sector

In Ghana, there have been many interventions in the health sector through national health policies, aimed at improving the health status of all Ghanaians, especially that of children, women and the youth. This feature seeks to look at Ghana's effort at improving sexual reproductive health of Ghanaians through family planning (FP). |MORE

The 50th Anniversary of the Birth of the Pill has inspired a significant series of articles in U.S. newspapers, magazines and TV talk shows. Here's a sampling.

• "Revolution in a Pill" by Richard Stengel, Managing Editor Time Magazine, 5/3/10: Cover article
  
  
• "It Started More Than One Revolution" by GARDINER HARRIS New York Times, 5/3/10
  
  
• NBC's "Today Show" 5/7/10
  
  
  
• Rachel Maddow, 5/7/10
  
  
• "The pill — a modern philosopher's stone" by Malcolm Potts Los Angeles Times, 5/7/10

  
  Oral contraceptives give women control of reproduction, and they have proved to be effective in preventing many diseases.
  Medieval alchemists, and more recently Harry Potter, spent time seeking the Philosopher's Stone. It was thought to be the elixir of life, bestowing long life and perhaps even immortality. Fifty years ago this month, a genuine philosopher's stone was discovered — only it was a small, white, circular tablet called Enovid, the first oral contraceptive....|MORE

• "The Pill Turns 50" Without feminism it would have just been another contraceptive. by Elaine Tyler May Ms. Magazine, Spring 2010
  
  
• "The Birth Control Pill's 50th Anniversary, From Three Generations of Women"
  Politics Daily, 5/7/10
  • Frances Tobin: Going On the Pill: An Empowering Moment for Young Women
  • Joann M. Weiner: How the Pill Changed the Course of Women's History
  • Bonnie Erbé: The Pill at 50: Not All of Us Were So Thrilled by Its Advent
    
    
• "What Every Girl Should Know"by Gail Collins New York Times , 5/8/10

  A thousand years ago, popular birth control methods in the Western world included spitting into the mouth of a frog, eating bees and wearing the testicles of a weasel. In Córdoba, Spain, which was supposed to be on the scientific cutting edge, women were told to leap up and down vigorously after sex, and then jump backward nine times.
  This is by way of saying that on Sunday we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the birth control pill. We live in troubled times. But let’s give thanks that we avoided the era of the weasel testicles...|MORE

• "The Pill at 50: Don't Stop Believin' " by Kirsten Moore Huffington Post, 5/10/10
  
  
• "Birth control pill creates 2 legacies" by Cheryl Wetzstein Washington Times, 5/11/10
  
  
• "Oral contraceptives have had broad impact but some seek alternatives to the pill" by Melissa Bell Washington Post, 5/11/10

• Services to New Mothers: Promising.

Sharon Camp's Blog
Huffington Post
May 9, 2009

In a recent blog in the Huffington Post Guttmacher's President, Sharon Camp, contended that President Obama's proposed 2010 Budget is a 'mixed bag' for programs and policies relating to sexual and reproductive health at home and abroad. However, she found encouraging the President's proposal to encourage communities to undertake programs which improve the prognosis for young, low-income women.

The president proposes the creation of a new "home visitation" program for low-income parents and pregnant women to the tune of $8.6 billion over the next 10 years. It would be an entitlement program for states, which would have to apply for the money and put up their own matching funds. Although some funds would go toward testing promising newer models, the program would, like the teen pregnancy initiative, primarily fund models with a strong research evidence base. The most prominent of those models, the Denver-based Nurse-Family Partnership, is currently serving more than 16,000 women in 28 states and has been shown over more than 30 years to have numerous long-term benefits for children and families, including reductions in preterm births and improved birth-spacing.

See further about the Nurse Family Partnership program below.

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• "Women's Health Matters!"

Future Choices TV episode
aired May 2009

In the face of continued attacks on reproductive rights, New York’s laws need to be strengthened to protect women’s health and safety, asserts Tracey Brooks, President & CEO of Family Planning Advocates of New York, in “Women’s Health Matters!” Unless we press our state legislators to enact the Reproductive Health Act, New York women risk losing some basic reproductive rights which we need to protect women's health and safety.

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National Partnership for Women & Families
April 17, 2009

Supporters of President Obama's proposal for a nurse home-visitation program for low-income women who are pregnant or have recently given birth are "optimistic" that bipartisan support for the plan in Congress will help ensure that it receives funding this year, CQ HealthBeat reports. The proposed initiative was inspired by the Colorado-based Nurse-Family Partnership, a similar program for low-income women that research shows has led to improved prenatal health, fewer subsequent pregnancies and a decrease in childhood injuries, according to David Olds, the founder of the program and a professor at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. |MORE

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“Family Planning: Critical Safety Net in Hard Times”

Future Choices episode
aired April 2009

Federal dollars invested in family planning is “smart government at its best,” asserts Rachel Benson Gold, the lead author of a 2009 report from the venerable Guttmacher Institute. “Publicly funded family planning is basic health care that empowers disadvantaged women to decide for themselves when to become pregnant and how many children to have,” she adds. “It reduces recourse to abortion. And it saves significant amounts of taxpayer money.” Family Planning: Critical Safety Net in Hard Times, which aired on local access TV in Westchester County during April 2009, gave Ms. Gold the podium for a succinct rundown of the high points of her Guttmacher report.|MORE

Parroting Propaganda on Family Planning

by Julie Hollar
RHRealityCheck.org
Created Apr 6 2009 - 7:00am

Of all the supposed "pork" in the proposed economic stimulus bill, perhaps none got so much media attention as the provision to extend family planning to more low-income women. As the House struggled to pass the legislation, Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) issued a press release (1/23/09) claiming that the plan "includes taxpayer funding for contraceptives and the abortion industry." Two days later, Boehner railed on NBC's Meet the Press (1/25/09), "Spending...over $200 million for contraceptives, how [is] this going to fix an ailing economy?" |MORE

Contraception and economic wellbeing

Recent sales data showing that consumers are spending more money on all types of contraception -- including more requests for vasectomies -- indicate that the "embrace of family planning appears to be a critical step in financial planning," Cristina Page blogs in the 3/27/ 09 Huffington Post. She continues, "So much for family planning being a non-sequitur in discussions about the economy." |MORE

Family planning a priority for more in tough economy

One couple spends the cable money on contraception.

The economy is affecting Utah women's most private decisions: More are seeking help with planning their families, from seeking subsidized birth control to getting abortions.
"We certainly see an impact on the number of people looking into contraceptive services," said Karrie Galloway, CEO of Planned Parenthood Association of Utah. |MORE

Progress on Family Planning

March 14, 2009
New York Times
EDITORIAL

Tucked into the big spending bill just signed by President Obama is a welcome provision designed to make affordable birth control available to millions of women across the country.
The provision is not a subsidy and will impose no burden on taxpayers. It will restore a limited exemption from Medicaid pricing rules that was in effect for nearly 20 years. It allowed pharmaceutical companies to supply contraceptives to college health clinics, all Planned Parenthood offices and other family-planning centers at an extreme discount that could be passed on to patients.

Family planning may suffer as economy declines

Cost may increasingly become a factor in making decisions about pregnancy, reproductive service agencies warn

By Deborah L. Shelton
Chicago Tribune reporter
March 10, 2009

As the economy worsens, providers of reproductive services say they are fielding more calls from distraught women facing difficult decisions about pregnancies they didn't plan and can't afford.

The interviews also suggest that more women are struggling to afford contraception and that, in some cases, they are risking their physical and emotional health by delaying abortion procedures for weeks as they seek a way to pay the cost. |MORE

President Obama takes first steps to remove the harmful 'provider refusal' regulation imposed by his predecessor

While President Obama has taken the all-important first steps to overturning the Bush administration's harmful rule, the process for undoing the rule is exasperatingly long and tortuous. You are urged to add your name to the Planned Parenthood list of people who oppose Bush's dangerous move against women's health. |MORE!!

National Partnership for Women and Families
DAILY WOMEN'S HEALTH POLICY REPORT
March 9, 2009

The Obama administration on [March 6, 2009] moved to rescind the Health and Human Services (HHS) provider "conscience" rule, which "was pushed through by former president George W. Bush" and according to Bush administration officials was meant to interpret laws that accommodate workers who refuse to provide health services or information they object to on moral or religious grounds, Reuters reports (Fox, Reuters, 3/6).

Detailing some of the concerns that have been expressed about the Bush Bush "conscience" rule Reuters explains that critics and HHS staff have said that it "was vague enough to let health professionals invoke the conscience clause to deny patients contraceptives, family planning advice, and even vaccines and blood transfusions."

In its filing, HHS said it was "proposing to rescind" the rule "in its entirety," adding that it "believes that the comments on the ... proposed rule raised a number of questions that warrant further careful consideration" (AFP/Google.com, 3/7). The agency added that there were concerns that the rule "would limit access to patient care" and that some people, especially those in rural and underserved areas, could be denied access to care. "It is important that the department have the opportunity to review this regulation to ensure its consistency with current administration policy."

See further: responses from the health care and women's rights community.