Family planning in the United States

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The objective of family planning in the United States is to enable individuals to determine the number and spacing of their children and to select the means by which that target may be achieved. Doing so can bring many benefits including improved maternal health, the prevention of the spread of STDs, and decreased infant and child mortality rates. [1]

Contents

Federally Funded Programs

Planned Parenthood

Teenage pregnancies are very involved in today's society and because of this the resources that are around for family planning is vital to the survival of these infants. Federally funded programs such as Planned Parenthood are very important in the family planning process of adolescents because of the involvement of doctors, gynecologists, or medicine. These family planning practices also help impact the teenager and the infant because of the availability of healthcare and other resources that may otherwise not be offered. [2]

Title X

Title X of the Public Health Service Act, [3] is a US government program dedicated to providing family planning services for those in need. But funding for Title X as a percentage of total public funding to family planning client services has steadily declined from 44% of total expenditures in 1980 to 12% in 2006.

Medicaid

Medicaid has increased from 20% to 71% in the same time. In 2006, Medicaid contributed $1.3 billion to public family planning. [4] The 1.9 billion spent on publicly funded family planning in 2008 saved an estimated $7 billion in short term Medicaid costs. [5] Such services helped women prevent an estimated 1.94 million unintended pregnancies and 810,000 abortions. [5]

More than 3 out of 10 women in the U.S. have an abortion by the time they are 45 years old. [6]

Contraceptive use in family planning

In the United States, contraceptive use saves about $19 billion in direct medical costs each year. [7] Despite the availability of highly effective contraceptives, about half of the pregnancies in the United States are unintended. [7] Highly effective contraceptives, such as IUD are underused in the United States. [5] Increasing use of highly effective contraceptives could help meet the goal set forward in Healthy People 2020 to decrease unintended pregnancy by 10%. [5] Cost to the user is one factor preventing many US women from using more effective contraceptives. [5] Making contraceptives available without a copay increases use of highly effective methods, reduces unintended pregnancies, and may be instrumental in achieving the Healthy People 2020 goal. [5]

See also

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Teenage pregnancy, also known as adolescent pregnancy, is pregnancy in a female under the age of 20.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Family planning</span> Planning when to have children

Family planning is the consideration of the number of children a person wishes to have, including the choice to have no children, and the age at which they wish to have them. Things that may play a role on family planning decisions include marital situation, career or work considerations, financial situations. If sexually active, family planning may involve the use of contraception and other techniques to control the timing of reproduction.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Birth control in the United States</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teenage pregnancy in the United States</span>

Teenage pregnancy in the United States occurs mostly unintentionally and out of wedlock but has been declining almost continuously since the 1990s. In 2022, the teenage birth rate fell to 13.5 per 1,000 girls aged 15 to 19, the lowest on record. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), this decline is due to abstinence and the use of contraception.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pregnancy options counseling in the United States</span>

Pregnancy options counseling is a form of counseling aimed to counsel women on decision-making for a troubling or unintended pregnancy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maternal healthcare in Texas</span>

Maternal healthcare in Texas refers to the provision of family planning services, abortion options, pregnancy-related services, and physical and mental well-being care for women during the prenatal and postpartum periods. The provision of maternal health services in each state can prevent and reduce the incidence of maternal morbidity and mortality and fetal death.

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References

  1. ↑ Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on a Comprehensive Review of the HHS Office of Family Planning Title X Program; Stith Butler A, Wright Clayton E, editors. A Review of the HHS Family Planning Program: Mission, Management, and Measurement of Results. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2009. 2, Overview of Family Planning in the United States. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK215219/
  2. ↑ Cromer, B; McCarthy, Maureen (1999). "Family Planning Services in Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention: The Views of Key Informants In Four Countries". Family Planning Perspectives. 31 (6): 287–93. doi:10.2307/2991539. JSTOR   2991539. PMID   10614519.
  3. ↑ "US Office of Population Affairs - Legislation". Archived from the original on 2008-09-20. Retrieved 2017-09-09.
  4. ↑ Sonfield A, Alrich C and Gold RB, Public funding for family planning, sterilization and abortion services, FY 1980–2006, Occasional Report, New York: Guttmacher Institute, 2008, No. 38. http://guttmacher.org/pubs/2008/01/28/or38.pdf
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Cleland K, Peipert JF, Westhoff C, Spear S, Trussell J (May 2011). "Family planning as a cost-saving preventive health service". N. Engl. J. Med. 364 (18): e37. doi:10.1056/NEJMp1104373. PMID   21506736.
  6. ↑ "Abortion". Planned Parenthood Federation of America Inc. Retrieved 21 April 2012.
  7. 1 2 James Trussell; Anjana Lalla; Quan Doan; Eileen Reyes; Lionel Pinto; Joseph Gricar (2009). "Cost effectiveness of contraceptives in the United States". Contraception. 79 (1): 5–14. doi:10.1016/j.contraception.2008.08.003. PMC   3638200 . PMID   19041435.
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