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Colorado offered free birth control — and teen abortions fell by 42 percent

ALiberalModerate

ALiberalModerate

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Colorado's Department of Public Health and Environment is seeking more funding to continue a privately funded birth control program that has, by several measures, been a startling success.The program, known as the Colorado Family Planning Initiative, provides intrauterine devices (IUDs) or implants at little to no cost for low-income women at family planning clinics in Colorado. It contributed to a 40 percent drop in Colorado's teen birth rate and a 42 percent drop in the state's teen abortion rate between 2009 and 2013, according to state data reported by the New York Times's Sabrina Tavernise.
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Read more here: Colorado offered free birth control
 
Not to worry, social conservatives will end that nonsense for "abstinence" and they'll get that abortion rate back up in no time.
 
Crovax said:
No, One Program Did Not Reduce Colorado's Teen Pregnancy Rate by 40 Percent | National Review Online
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To be fair, the original study did not claim that the program was solely responsible for the Pregnancy drop. The study claimed that the program was responsible for roughly 75% of the decline - mostly based on a trend line from the three most recent years before the law's passage and then continuing that same trend line a few years into the future, and then comparing that projected trend line to what was actually observed.

Either way, it seems irrefutable that access to affordable birth control decreases instances of teen pregnancy and abortion rates as well.
 
OrphanSlug said:
Not to worry, social conservatives will end that nonsense for "abstinence" and they'll get that abortion rate back up in no time.
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Not if they can get their way and ban abortions as well...then we can just get a drastic increase to the national crime rates like we saw in the 1980s.
 
OrphanSlug said:
Not to worry, social conservatives will end that nonsense for "abstinence" and they'll get that abortion rate back up in no time.
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Baby steps OS, baby steps.
 
SouthernDemocrat said:
Read more here: Colorado offered free birth control[/FONT][/COLOR]
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As someone who abhors abortions of convenience while also supporting choice in all things related to one's own personal life, I will also offer my congrats to Colorado for the success, regardless of the arguments of what/who did what, because any unwanted pregnancy that is avoided before conception is a success in my view.
 
Goshin said:
Hm. Well its hard to argue with success.


Still think they should teach abstinence alongside BC though... BC sometimes fails.
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Every single program I've ever read up on or been introduced to for talking to school kids about sex ed includes abstinence.

I've never heard of someone pushing for sex ed that includes "abstinence is a terrible idea" or to just leave it out.

Did you just want to add in that caveat or have you heard of cases where abstinence is being left out of the discussion?
 
roughdraft274 said:
Every single program I've ever read up on or been introduced to for talking to school kids about sex ed includes abstinence.

I've never heard of someone pushing for sex ed that includes "abstinence is a terrible idea" or to just leave it out.

Did you just want to add in that caveat or have you heard of cases where abstinence is being left out of the discussion?
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Just wanted to add the caveat. :)
 
CanadaJohn said:
As someone who abhors abortions of convenience while also supporting choice in all things related to one's own personal life, I will also offer my congrats to Colorado for the success, regardless of the arguments of what/who did what, because any unwanted pregnancy that is avoided before conception is a success in my view.
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In all of politics I have never seen a more damaging and divisive issue than abortion, from the early 70's and covering the trials of Dr. Henry Morganthaler to today....

If I am not mistaken Canada is the only advanced nation with no abortion law...

And I read recently that the stats regarding abortion in terms of where in term, use as convenience etc., are about the best in the world.
 
I would be interested in knowing if the STD rate grew exponentially.
 
SouthernDemocrat said:
Read more here: Colorado offered free birth control[/FONT][/COLOR]
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Wonderful result if true. I'm all for the individuals states doing and funding this sort of program. However, not an excuse for the feds to get involved with either funding and/or admin. It's for the individual states to decide if they wish to go to their citizens for the money to fund these things.
 
Interesting. So if we banned abortions, would birth control sales go up? Or are people just not that smart.
 
MrT said:
To be fair, the original study did not claim that the program was solely responsible for the Pregnancy drop. The study claimed that the program was responsible for roughly 75% of the decline - mostly based on a trend line from the three most recent years before the law's passage and then continuing that same trend line a few years into the future, and then comparing that projected trend line to what was actually observed.

Either way, it seems irrefutable that access to affordable birth control decreases instances of teen pregnancy and abortion rates as well.
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The copuntering argument very clearly showed that the decline has been ongoing for years including years prior AND that the decline rates were approximately equal in counties WITHOUT the program. Sooooooooooooooo...

That being said...I applaud the privately funded program initiative. It shows what private funding can do AND that communities dont have to be dependent on mommy government. Im also FOR free contraceptives (condoms) and think their use should be promoted.
 
Goshin said:
Hm. Well its hard to argue with success.


Still think they should teach abstinence alongside BC though... BC sometimes fails.
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Not as often as abstinence fails though (through failure to actually abstain). ;)
 
SouthernDemocrat said:
Read more here: Colorado offered free birth control[/FONT][/COLOR]
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Well, fancy that! People use contraception more when they can access it!

I am always stunned by some people's belief that women abort simply because they were too lazy to use contraception. That is expensive and uncomfortable and time-consuming, even if you have no personal issue with it at all. I might be the most universally pro-choice woman on DP with exactly zero ethical qualms with abortion, and I can still think of about a billion things I'd rather be doing than getting one, using contraception being high on that list.

And go figure apparently most other women agree. Not that we needed Colorado to tell us this; the rest of the developed world has been doing it for ages, with very good results. But as usual, America tends to straggle behind.
 
Goshin said:
Hm. Well its hard to argue with success.

Still think they should teach abstinence alongside BC though... BC sometimes fails.
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I'm not aware of any programs that don't. It's a valid sexual choice just as much as choosing to have sex is.

To work properly, abstinence has to be something someone chooses solely for themselves, not because someone told them to. In the same way that for contraception to work properly, people have to be informed of exactly how sex works, what's a risk and what isn't, and how contraception drastically lowers those those risks when used properly.
 
SmokeAndMirrors said:
I'm not aware of any programs that don't. It's a valid sexual choice just as much as choosing to have sex is.

To work properly, abstinence has to be something someone chooses solely for themselves, not because someone told them to. In the same way that for contraception to work properly, people have to be informed of exactly how sex works, what's a risk and what isn't, and how contraception drastically lowers those those risks when used properly.
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I have no problem with that, as long as they're told that "safe sex" is never entirely safe.
 
azgreg said:
Wasn't there that one time?
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Yeah. I think it was late September, back in '63.... you know, I didn't even know her name.


What a lady.


What a night.
 
VanceMack said:
The copuntering argument very clearly showed that the decline has been ongoing for years including years prior AND that the decline rates were approximately equal in counties WITHOUT the program. Sooooooooooooooo...

That being said...I applaud the privately funded program initiative. It shows what private funding can do AND that communities dont have to be dependent on mommy government. Im also FOR free contraceptives (condoms) and think their use should be promoted.
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Please show where the decline rates were the same in places that did not have the program.
 
RAMOSS said:
Please show where the decline rates were the same in places that did not have the program.
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"The teen abortion rate had been falling dramatically for a significant period of time, and with CFPI, it just kept falling. The study compared 2008 and 2011 abortion rates in counties where CFPI was available — in that time period, abortion rates for 15–19 year olds in those counties decreased from 10.9 per 1,000 women to 7.2 per 1,000, which is indeed a 34 percent decrease. In that same time frame, abortion rates in counties without the program decreased from 14.4 to 10.2 per 1,000, a 29 percent decrease."

Read more at: No, One Program Did Not Reduce Colorado's Teen Pregnancy Rate by 40 Percent | National Review Online
 
Of course fewer unplanned pregnancies means fewer abortions. Is this really a surprise to anyone? There is only one way that abortion will ever disappear, and that's if there's no need for it. Control over pregnancy is how you achieve that.
 
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