New Study: American Women Use Contraception for Great Reasons!

By Amy Phillips Bursch, Media Relations Manager

I’m not usually a big proponent of made-up holidays (International Talk Like a Pirate Day and National Donut Day excluded) but I can TOTALLY get behind this one:  Tomorrow -- Sept. 26 -- is World Contraception Day! Yessss!

I'm a huge fan of family planning. Contraception has allowed me to choose the direction of my life rather than have only one option – motherhood. Given my lifelong disinterest in parenthood, I’ve instead chosen to focus on being a wife, writer, employee, volunteer and cool (I hope) auntie to seven great nieces and nephews.

I’m not alone. A new study just out from the Guttmacher Institute proves what I've suspected all along: American women use contraception to  -- wait for it – “better achieve their life goals.” Whoa.

"We can wait to have a kid until we're ready? YES!" (Mathias Kunzli/Flickr)

(Of course, some conservatives argue that women shouldn’t have any life goals beyond being a wife and mother, but I’d kindly suggest that they have at it if they'd like but let the rest of us live our lives how we see fit, thank you very much.)

Tidbits from the study:

• 63% of women surveyed say contraception has helped them better take care of themselves and their families – including the kids they’ve already got.
• 56% say contraception has allowed them to support themselves financially.
• 51% say contraception has allowed them to complete their education. Those silly women thinking they need college degrees!
• 50% say contraception has allowed them to get or keep a job.

Among reasons women said they used contraception were that they could not afford a baby (65%), they weren’t ready to have children (63%), to have better control over their lives (60%) and wanting to wait until their lives are more stable to add a baby to it (60%).

Those sound like really responsible reasons to me! And here I thought we were all using birth control to engage in wanton hedonism. Oh well.

It's No Time to Deep-Six Title X

By John Seager, President, Population Connection

This little-known program has been saving money, lives and heartache for more than 40 years here in the U.S. It prevents unwanted pregnancies, detects cancer, treats deadly infections and helps babies get a good start in life.

What would happen if that program suddenly vanished?

It wouldn’t be pretty. If Title X funding hadn’t existed in2008, we’d have seen an extra 973,000 unintended pregnancies. 433,000 unplanned births. And 406,000 abortions, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Teen pregnancies would rise, and taxpayers would have to spend more on public services. Our health care system would suffer. So, too, would flesh and blood people.

Unfortunately, this isn’t just an interesting thought experiment. The future of Title X isn’t entirely secure.

Title X provided 5.2 million Americans with reproductive care in 2010, but future funding is in doubt. (afagen/flickr)

The National Family Planning Program, or Title X – pronounced “ten” – is one of the most important public health programs in the nation. Begun by President Richard Nixon in 1970, this program is a crucial source of reproductive care. In 2010 alone, it provided 5.2 million Americans with Pap tests, breast exams, family planning advice and contraception. Not a dollar of Title X money is spent on abortion. About 69 percent of families served by Title X had family incomes at or below the poverty level. Without Title X, these families most likely would simply go without.

Why should you care? I’m glad you asked.

When women are able to postpone pregnancy, plan their families and space their births, they are healthier, and their babies are, too, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Teens can stay in school. College dreams can become reality. The economic pressures large families face can be avoided.

Our planet benefits, too, by less use of the natural resources we all depend upon.

Family planning also saves you and me money. Every dollar invested in Title X family planning programs saves $3.74 in Medicaid costs the next year, according to Guttmacher.

But for some strange reason, family planning now finds itself in the crosshairs. Whether for short-sighted budgetary concerns, arcane religious arguments or simple sexism, the House this year voted to defund Title X – and leave those 5.2 million Americans to fend for themselves.

This is no time to back down on our commitment to healthier women, children and families.

So the next time you hear silly politicians vowing to defund family planning programs, confront them. Ask them why they want more unintended pregnancies, extra unplanned births and a spike in the abortion rate. Ask them why they want fewer Americans taking responsibility for their choices by using contraception. Ask them why they want women’s lives constrained in a way that men’s simply are not.

Then listen – really listen – to their answer. That should tell you all you need to know.

Hey "Pro-Lifers": Family Planning Saves Lives. So Why Oppose It?

By Amy Phillips Bursch, Media Relations Manager

 

This is one thing I’ll never, ever understand: Family planning saves lives. Family planning prevents unplanned pregnancies. No unplanned pregnancies equals way fewer abortions. So why aren’t the hard-core “pro-lifers” in favor of family planning?

There are plenty of reasonable people out there who oppose a woman’s right to choose but fully support family planning, of course. I’m not talking about them. I’m talking about the activists and organizations who think abstinence is the only acceptable option to prevent pregnancy. That’s unrealistic, and it hurts women, infants and families. How? Here are some facts:

Family planning helps women -- and their children. (Legends2K/Flickr)

• A U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) analysis found that if moms waited three years between pregnancies to have another baby, 1.6 million infant and child deaths could be prevented every year.
• The Guttmacher Institute estimates that in 2012, 291,000 women in developing nations will die from pregnancy-related causes. At least 104,000 of those women didn’t want to be pregnant in the first place.
• According to the World Health Organization (WHO), women under 20 are significantly more likely to die after giving birth than are women ages 20-29. Family planning allows younger women to wait to have children when their bodies can better handle pregnancy.
• The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) reports that babies of mothers who die are more likely to die themselves.
• A Guttmacher Institute analysis found that family planning (at current levels) prevents 138 million abortions – including 40 million unsafe ones – each year in developing countries. An additional 26 million abortions (16 million unsafe) would be prevented if women who want to avoid pregnancy but don’t have modern methods of contraception had them.
• Unsafe abortions account for 13% of maternal deaths around the world, according to the WHO. I think it’s safe to say that practically none of those women would have died from unsafe abortion if they hadn’t been pregnant in the first place.

But some “pro-life” organizations can’t be persuaded. The “personhood” people want fertilized eggs to be given all the rights of full-grown humans, making the most effective forms of contraception illegal. Personhood USA on Wednesday sent out a tweet saying that “The lie: birth control prevents pregnancy. The truth: most will get pregnant & ‘need’ an abortion.” I guess infertile couples should use contraception, then?

The American Life League actively promotes the falsehood that the “Pill Kills Babies.”  A new group, 1Flesh, has also jumped on the "pill kills" bandwagon, and OneMore Soul says “an openness towards having children yields specific medicalbenefits.” (Huh?)

Justice for All’s handbook, “Abortion: From Debate to Dialogue,” says birth control pills are “as if the child entering the uterus is looking for his camping spot and finds “NO CAMPING!” signs … he dies from lack of nutrition and hydration.” It also says that “since self-control seems to be the root cause of unwanted pregnancies, why not focus our efforts on teaching people how to be abstinent”? I’m sure married couples who don’t wish to become pregnant will find that suggestion just peachy.

It's worth repeating: Family planning saves lives. Family planning prevents abortions. Family planning helps gives women power over their own futures. 

You really want to oppose all of that, "pro-lifers"? Really? REALLY?

Feeding World Will Take All of Us

By John Seager, Population Connection President

American farmers feed the world. But what happens to the world if they no longer can because of events beyond their control?

This might not be a hypothetical question much longer.

America’s growers are being devastated by the worst drought since the 1950s – and the hottest summer since 1936. Instead of the record corn crop farmers planted, we’re looking at record losses. A map from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows that the breadbasket of the nation is over-baked indeed.

Drought is ravaging corn crops in the Midwest. (Paul Bica/flickr)

As Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, told the British paper, The Guardian: “Although the world was hoping for a good U.S. harvest to replenish dangerously low grain stocks, this is no longer in the cards. World carryover stocks of grain will fall further at the end of this crop year, making the food situation even more precarious.”

It’s not just our disaster. Hungry mouths around the world depend on our farmers.

In the past, the world has relied on advancing technologies – the so-called “Green Revolution.”  New seed varieties and additional fertilizer and irrigation allowed for amazing increases in yield. But those increases in yield are slowing down. The best land is already in production. Returns on using more fertilizer are diminishing and subject to rising oil prices as concerns over fossil fuel emissions mount. And as the water needs of cities grow, the cost to irrigate crop land will keep on climbing.  

Meanwhile, our human population keeps growing. There are 150 new mouths to feed every minute. Most of that growth is happening in the least-developed nations – the nations least able to feed themselves.

Keeping everyone fed – and avoiding a global disaster – is going to take a worldwide effort. American farmers will do everything they can – they always have. We can help them out by making sure every woman who wants to plan her family has the ability to do so.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, there are 222 million women in developing countries who want to avoid pregnancy but have no access to affordable and appropriate contraception. Right here in the United States, nearly half of all pregnancies are unintended. By meeting the need for family planning, we’ll be able to slow population growth, reduce the economic strain on individual families and help ensure that our farmers can continue to feed the world.

The United States has long supported voluntary international family planning – we invested $610 million in 2012 alone. But opposition is increasing in some political quarters. Reducing that investment now would be disastrous for families and our fiscal future. Estimates are that every dollar invested in family planning saves governments up to $6 in public service costs. Contraception pays for itself.

Americans will keep seeking agriculture innovations.  But in the meantime, we need to keep investing in the world’s women. Because when women do well, so do families, communities and nations, and everyone can be fed.

New Law Benefits Women, Planet

By Amy Phillips Bursch, Media Relations Manager

Happy Contraception Day! Today’s the day that most insurance plans in the United States have to start covering birth control with no co-pays under the Affordable Care Act. As a woman who’s spent a fair amount of effort and money avoiding motherhood, I couldn’t be more pleased.  Birth control can be very expensive, and laws that help increase access are a great thing in my book.

But you don’t have to be a woman of a certain (reproductive) age to benefit from expanded access to contraception. Contraception is good for the women you care about, their families, their communities and the planet. And who could possibly be against that? (Well, plenty of people, but I’ll touch on that later.)

First up: Women. It’s not just the childless by choice who benefit from contraception. Birth control allows women to wait to have babies until they’re ready. When women can plan and appropriately space their pregnancies, they and their babies are healthier. According to the reproductive health gurus at the Guttmacher Institute, “Women whose pregnancies are planned are more likely to receive timely prenatal care. They are less likely to smoke or drink during pregnancy, and more likely to breast-feed once their baby is born.” That’s good stuff.

Using these just got a lot more affordable. (outcast104/Flickr)

The typical American woman only wants two children. Contraception allows families to have the number of children they’re comfortable raising – and give those children the best possible shot at success. A child who’s received good health care and a great education is more likely to grow up to be a productive member of society. That helps entire nations succeed – and in our complex, interconnected global economy, we need as much success as we can get.

So how does contraception help the planet? In one number: 26.8 billion. That’s how many people the United Nations projects will be sharing Earth in 2100 if we don’t slow down population growth. Keep in mind that we have about 7.1 billion people on the planet right now. Picture nearly four times as many people struggling to find (and afford) water, food and energy on a planet where water, food and energy are already scarce in many areas. It’s a recipe for disaster, but it’s an entirely preventable disaster if we take action.

By Guttmacher’s projections, 222 million women in the developing world don’t have access to affordable and appropriate contraception. Here in the United States, nearly half of all pregnancies are unplanned. By expanding access both here (thanks, President Obama!) and abroad (thanks, Melinda Gates, UNFPA, USAID and friends!), we can reduce unintended births, slow down population growth and give the people of 2100 a little more breathing room.

Sounds great, right? Not to everyone, unfortunately. The tentacles of sexism are long and tightly wrapped around societies – including ours. The collective right-wing freakout over the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate is only the latest example. While many of us see women’s equality as an inalienable right, powerful interests see it as a threat. That’s why we can’t rest. We have to keep fighting the forces that would be happy to see all women barefoot and pregnant and confined to making sandwiches in the world’s kitchens.

The Affordable Care Act’s contraception coverage is a great step in the right direction, and it will help women. And men. And communities. And right-wingers, even though they claim otherwise. And our planet. And the people of 2100. Here’s hoping the long fight for gender equity is done by then.

Wanted: $1 billion for women

By John Seager, President, Population Connection

Editor's Note: This guest post appeared July 10 on the reproductive health blog RH Reality Check.

July 11th is World Population Day – arguably the most important made-up holiday we’ve had in years. Why do I say that? Because it’s the final World Population Day before the 2012 elections, and the choices Americans make in the voting booth will have lasting consequences for people and the planet.

We have two options: We can make family planning a priority and invest the money needed to give women control of their own lives and futures. Or we can allow our nation – and our world – to slide backward.

John Seager

I did not expect that we’d be in this position today. In my 16 years with Population Connection, I’ve never seen anything like the attacks on contraception we’ve witnessed in the past year.  Silly me: I thought the fight over contraception was resolved back in the 1960s. What I hadn’t counted on was the growing political power of people determined to turn the clock back to the ’50s – preferably the 1850s or 1750s.

The examples are numerous and egregious:

• The U.S. House votes to eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood and for Title X family planning programs (created by Republican President Richard Nixon in 1970.)

• The House convenes an all-male panel to decry the Obama Administration’s rule requiring insurance policies to cover contraception.

• Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke is publicly attacked as a “slut” and a “prostitute” after testifying in favor of the Obama Administration’s rule.

• A House committee votes to end funding for the United Nations Population Fund, or UNFPA, a development program that offers reproductive health care and voluntary family planning services to 500 million women around the world each year.

• At the recent Rio + 20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, the Vatican succeeds in removing references to gender equality and reproductive rights from the final document.

We can expect some of the same right-wing reaction over the London Summit on Family Planning, which begins today.

These actions affect women’s lives and livelihoods – and the health of our world. Adding 80 million people a year to the Earth’s population puts incredible strain on our natural resources. Experts project that in less than 50 years, we might add another 2 billion to 4 billion people to our planet. All of those people need food, water, clean air and space – necessities that are already running in short supply in many areas.

So what can we do about it? First of all, demand that your representatives support policies that ensure women around the world have the power to choose the trajectory of their own lives. About 222 million women around the globe want to delay or end their childbearing but have no access to modern contraception, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Universal access to contraception would slow population growth, give women and girls more power over their own futures and help communities and nations build a better quality of life for all of their people.

Advocate, advocate, advocate. Ask everyone running for Congress to support the Global Democracy Promotion Act, introduced by Sen. Barbara Boxer and Rep. Nita Lowey. This legislation would create a permanent repeal of the odious Global Gag Rule that hurts the world’s most vulnerable women every time it’s reinstated. Let them know how important it is to provide aid to UNFPA and to ensure universal access to contraceptives. Demand comprehensive sex education and the elimination of “refusal clauses” that allow pharmacists and other health professionals to deny treatment.

The United States also must increase funding for voluntary family planning programs. An investment of $1 billion represents our nation’s fair share of the total cost of meeting unmet need for family planning worldwide. It’s a sound investment in our shared future that will save the lives of women and improve everyone’s quality of life.

If you agree, join us and other organizations that work on behalf of these issues. And don’t give up. If we want to achieve women’s rights, a stable population and a healthier planet, we must keep fighting not just on World Population Day, but every day, every week, every year.

“Controversial”? Why?

By Amy Phillips Bursch, Media Relations Manager

Wednesday is World Population Day. It’s also the start of a family planning summit organized by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. And even though women have been looking to avoid getting pregnant for as long as there have been women, for some reason, contraception has now become “controversial.”

REALLY?

It shouldn’t be. Family planning saves lives, as this great new video featuring Melinda Gates shows. In fact, a new report by the Guttmacher Institute finds that providing contraception for all the women around the world who don’t currently have access would prevent 54 million unintended pregnancies, 26 million abortions, 21 million unplanned births, 79,000 pregnancy-related deaths and 1.1 million infant deaths. What’s the controversy in that?

By providing access to contraception, we’re providing access for women to determine the course of their own lives. They’re able to have the children they desire and care for the ones they have. Each child can get the food she requires, the attention she craves, the education she needs, and the future she wants. Families, then villages, then entire nations can rise out of poverty – all because women have a choice. What’s the controversy in that?

Family planning didn’t used to be controversial. In fact, Richard Nixon – that hard-core liberal – once said: “It is my view that no American woman should be denied access to family planning assistance because of her economic condition.” In 1967, that other hard-core liberal, George H.W. Bush, said the federal government should “work even more closely with going private agencies such as Planned Parenthood” to provide contraception for every American woman.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for today’s lawmakers to say such a thing.

No Holding Hands in Tennessee?

Amy Phillips Bursch, Media Relations Manager

Sometimes, the only logical reaction to a story is “WHAT?”

Tennessee just enacted one of the strictest abstinence education laws in the nation. In fact, the law bans teachers from talking about “gateway sexual activity” without defining what, exactly, “gateway sexual activity” is, leading opponents of the law to brand it the “no holding-hands bill.”

"Gateway sexual activity"? (Katie Tegtmeyer/Foter)

And you guessed it: Tennessee has one of the highest teen birth rates in the nation. Clearly, Tennessee teenagers are doing a lot of hand-holding. Or something.

I’m not here to pick on Tennessee – it’s not the only state that tries to tackle teen pregnancy with the “Just Say No” approach. The problem is, teens AREN’T saying no. Teens – including Tennessee ones – have sex. According to the Guttmacher Institute, 70% of American teenagers have had intercourse by their 19^th birthday, beginning at age 17 on average.

Population Connection supports fact-based, unbiased comprehensive sex education. Why? Because it works.  One recent study found that teenagers who were taught both about contraception and the benefits of abstinence delayed having sex, protected themselves when they did and had the healthiest partnerships. Students who received only abstinence education also delayed having sex, but when they did, they were less likely to use contraception. And we all know what that leads to, which is great when you’re ready, but difficult when you’re not.  

Need by the Numbers

By Amy Phillips Bursch, Media Relations Manager

The Guttmacher Institute – guru of all things reproductive health – has a new report out on the demand for contraception in the developing world – and the news isn’t all that peachy. Here are the numbers you need to know:

222 Million: The number of women in developing countries who want to avoid pregnancy but aren’t using modern contraception. That's not good.

56: The percentage of married women in Southeast Asia using modern contraception.

Less than 10: The percentage of married women in Western Africa using modern contraception. Yikes.

4 billion: The amount in dollars spent per year to provide the current level of contraceptive care in the developing world.

8.1 billion: The amount in dollars per year it would take to fully meet the need for contraception in the developing world.

11.3 billion: The amount in dollars per year an $8.1 billion annual investment in contraception would save. Family planning saves money, folks!

21 million: The number of unplanned births that would be avoided.

26 million: The number of abortions that would be avoided – including 16 million unsafe procedures.

79,000: The number of women whose lives would be saved.

Would doubling our investment in family planning funding be worth it? My sources say yes!