Guttmacher Institute

Last updated
Guttmacher Institute
Formation1968;55 years ago (1968) (as Center for Family Planning Program Development)
TypeNGO
Purpose reproductive health, birth control
Region served
United States and globally
CEO
 Herminia Palacio
Budget
$19 million
Website guttmacher.org

The Guttmacher Institute is a research and policy NGO that aims to improve sexual health and expand reproductive rights worldwide. [1] [2] The organization was started in 1968 and functions as both a research and educational organization. [3] [4] It operates mainly in the United States but also focuses on developing countries. [4] Founded as part of Planned Parenthood, the Guttmacher Institute became independent from Planned Parenthood in 2007.

Contents

The institute is named after obstetrician-gynecologist and former president of Planned Parenthood Alan F. Guttmacher. [5] The Guttmacher Institute has many sources of funding nationally and internationally. [4] One of its projects is keeping a running list of the reproductive health laws and policies throughout the United States. [4] The current CEO is Herminia Palacio. [6]

History

Founded in 1968, the Guttmacher Institute was originally called the Center for Family Planning Program Development and was a branch of Planned Parenthood. [5] After Alan Guttmacher's death, the Center for Family Planning Program Development was renamed and became an independent non-profit organization. [5] In 2007, the organization officially split from Planned Parenthood. [3]

Activities

The Guttmacher Institute continually monitors state and national laws and policies about contraception and abortion. The institute records the restrictions on reproductive health that different states have put in place. The organization also keeps data about how teens are affected by pregnancy and the number of teens who use contraception. [4] Internationally, the Guttmacher Institute uses statistical models to give an approximation of the number of abortions in places where they are illegal and/or the abortions happen outside of formal health care settings. [4]

In 2013, the Guttmacher Institute was awarded a Population Center grant by the US National Institutes of Health in support its Center for Population Research Innovation and Dissemination. [4] The Guttmacher Institute has received Charity Navigator's highest (4-Star) rating annually since 2010. [7]

Funding

When the institute was founded in 1968 its parent organization, Planned Parenthood, was its sole source of its funding. [3] Three years after becoming independent in 2007, the organization received less than 1% of its funding from Planned Parenthood in 2010. [3] Now, most of the funding is gained through private foundations based in the United States. Other funding comes from international organizations such as the World Health Organization and the World Bank. [4] The Guttmacher Institute was awarded $3.9 million between 1986 and 2015 by the MacArthur Foundation, including 13 grants in population and reproductive health. [8]

Nonpartisanship

The Guttmacher Institute is not affiliated with a political party, and so it is nonpartisan in the strict sense of the word. The group work to "ensure that all women are able to exercise their reproductive rights and responsibilities", which puts them among advocates of abortion rights. According to FactCheck , Guttmacher "provides the most highly respected statistics on the sexual health of women and men. Its figures on abortion are widely cited by the media as well as by groups on both sides of the political aisle." [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

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The Mexico City policy, sometimes referred to by its critics as the global gag rule, is a former United States government policy that blocked U.S. federal funding for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that provided abortion counseling or referrals, advocated to decriminalize abortion, or expanded abortion services. When in effect, the Mexico City policy is a U.S. government policy that requires foreign non-governmental organizations to certify that they will not "perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning" with non-U.S. funds as a condition for receiving U.S. global family planning assistance, and during its January 23, 2017 implementation any other U.S. global health assistance, including U.S. global HIV and maternal and child health (MCH) assistance.

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA), or simply Planned Parenthood, is a nonprofit organization that provides reproductive and sexual healthcare, and sexual education in the United States and globally. It is a tax-exempt corporation under Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3) and a member association of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).

The Population Research Institute (PRI) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in Front Royal, Virginia, US. The organization opposes abortion. They believe that overpopulation is a myth, and oppose hormonal birth control in females and vasectomies in males. In addition, the organization issues opinion pieces questioning the veracity of human driven climate change and the natural origin of COVID-19.

Abortion in the Philippines is illegal.

The Title X Family Planning Program is the only federal grant program dedicated to providing individuals with comprehensive family planning and related preventive health services. It was enacted under President Richard Nixon in 1970 as part of the Public Health Service Act.

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

Birth control in the United States is available in many forms. Some of the forms available at drugstores and some retail stores are male condoms, female condoms, sponges, spermicides, and over-the-counter emergency contraception. Forms available at pharmacies with a doctor's prescription or at doctor's offices are oral contraceptive pills, patches, vaginal rings, diaphragms, shots/injections, cervical caps, implantable rods, and intrauterine devices (IUDs). Sterilization procedures, including tubal ligations and vasectomies, are also performed.

Reproductive coercion is a collection of behaviors that interfere with decision-making related to reproductive health. These behaviors are meant to maintain power and control related to reproductive health by a current, former, or hopeful intimate or romantic partner, but they can also be perpetrated by parents or in-laws. Coercive behaviors infringe on individuals' reproductive rights and reduce their reproductive autonomy.

Abortion is the termination of human pregnancy, often performed in the first 28 weeks of pregnancy. In 1973, the United States Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade recognized a constitutional right to obtain an abortion without excessive government restriction, and in 1992 the Court in Planned Parenthood v. Casey invalidated restrictions that create an undue burden on people seeking abortions. Since then, there has continued to be an abortion debate in the United States, and some states have passed laws in the form of regulation of abortions but which have the purpose or effect of restricting its provision. The proponents of such laws argue they do not create an undue burden. Some state laws that impact the availability of abortions have been upheld by courts. In 2022, Roe and Casey were overturned by the Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, meaning that states may now regulate abortion in ways that were not previously permitted.

Frederick S. Jaffe (1925–1978) was a vice president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and founder of what is now the Guttmacher Institute. He was an advocate for increasing the availability of family planning services in the United States. Through his publications and consultations Jaffe argued for birth control as a matter of health and human rights. He was instrumental in developing public support for federal financing of family planning programs, among them the landmark Title X of the Public Health Service Act, passed by Congress in 1970. For his contributions to public health Jaffe was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in September 1977.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reproductive rights in Latin America</span>

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Abortion in Nevada is legal within 24 weeks since fertilization, under the Nevada Revised Statutes chapter 442, section 250; and after 24 weeks if the pregnancy could be fatal for the pregnant woman. 62% of adults said in a poll by the Pew Research Center that abortion should be legal while 34% said it should by illegal in all or most cases. Legislation by 2007 required informed consent. Attempts were successfully made to pass abortion legislation in May 2019, being pushed through a largely Democratic controlled state legislature. The number of abortion clinics in Nevada has declined over the years, with 25 in 1982, seventeen in 1992 and thirteen in 2014. There were 8,132 legal abortions in 2014, and 7,116 in 2015.

Abortion in Rhode Island is legal. On June 19, 2019, the legal right to abortion was codified into Rhode Island law by passage of the Reproductive Privacy Act.

Abortion in Vermont is legal in all stages of pregnancy. A 2014 Pew Research Center poll showed 70% of adults in the state believed abortion should be legal in most or all cases, the second highest percentage in the country. The state funds abortions deemed medically necessary for low-income women via Medicaid.

Abortion in the U.S. state of Virginia is legal up to the end of the second trimester of a pregnancy. Abortion was illegal in Virginia by 1900, but by 1950 had a legal therapeutic exception. At the University of Virginia Hospital in 1950, a review board was created to examine and approve all abortion requests that were approved for psychiatric reasons which resulted in a large drop in the number of abortions performed there. In the 1975 Bigelow v. Virginia case the US Supreme Court ruled that state bans on abortion clinics advertising their services were unconstitutional. By 2007, Virginia had an abortion-specific informed consent requirement. The number of abortion clinics in Virginia has fluctuated over the years, with 71 in 1982, 64 in 1992 and eighteen in 2014. There were 20,187 legal abortions in 2014, and 18,663 in 2015. There are active abortion rights and anti-abortion rights activist communities in the states. The state has also seen anti-abortion rights violence, including at least two arson attacks.

Elective abortions in Wisconsin became illegal after the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court of the United States on June 24, 2022. An 1849 law bans the procedure in all cases except when the life of the mother is in danger. The enforceability of the law is disputed and being considered by the state courts.

Abortion in New Mexico is legal up to birth. The number of abortion clinics in New Mexico has declined over the years, with 26 in 1982, 20 in 1992 and 11 in 2014. There were 4,500 legal abortions in 2014. There were 7 facilities providing abortion in New Mexico in 2017, and 6 of those were clinics. In 2017, 91% of New Mexico counties had no clinics that provided abortions, and 48% of New Mexico women lived in those counties.

References

  1. ↑ "Guttmacher Institute About" . Retrieved 2022-06-27.
  2. ↑ "The Decade That Dismantled Abortion Rights". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 2020-03-10. ... reproductive rights group Guttmacher Institute ... .
  3. 1 2 3 4 Bass, Hannah (2012-01-25). "Guttmacher Institute". BMJ. 344: e623. doi:10.1136/bmj.e623. ISSN   0959-8138. PMID   22279095. S2CID   5319414.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "The Guttmacher Institute: The Scientific Backbone of the Reproductive Health Community | Benefunder". www.benefunder.com. Retrieved 2018-10-22.
  5. 1 2 3 Valentine, Barbara. "Guttmacher Institute". College & Research Libraries News.
  6. ↑ "Herminia Palacio". Guttmacher Institute. 2019-06-24. Retrieved 2022-06-21.
  7. ↑ "Charity Navigator - Rating for Guttmacher Institute". Charity Navigator. Retrieved 2016-05-23.
  8. ↑ "Guttmacher Institute - MacArthur Foundation" . Retrieved 2020-05-15.
  9. ↑ "FactCheck Mailbag, Week of April 6-April 12 - FactCheck.org". FactCheck.org. 2010-04-13. Retrieved 2018-10-26.
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