Six years ago one state decided to do something real: starting in 2009 Colorado gave girls and young women free long-acting birth control. The result?
The birthrate for teenagers across the state plunged by 40 percent from 2009 to 2013, while their rate of abortions fell by 42 percent, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. There was a similar decline in births for another group particularly vulnerable to unplanned pregnancies: unmarried women under 25 who have not finished high school.Colorado's program was funded by the Buffett Foundation, named for Warren Buffett's late wife.
This proves that simple and straightforward contraceptive programs will prevent more abortions than all the abstinence programs and restrictive legislation put together.
It also shows why private companies who want to opt out of paying for employees' birth control are so completely wrong: preventing unwanted pregnancies reduces the number of abortions, saves the health care system billions of dollars in unwanted pregnancies, helps keep young women and their unwanted children off the government dole, increases the graduation rate allowing more young women to get the education that is very much needed to be competitive in today's job market.
And, quite blatantly, it's better for business: women who don't get pregnant accidentally make better employees. Women with IUDs and implanted contraceptives are much less likely to get pregnant unexpectedly. Their absences can be better planned and aligned with business needs. Everybody wins.
It's now clear that the only reason a business wouldn't pay for their employees' birth control is to register their unbridled and childish annoyance at the health care law that has been designated the primary achievement of the first African American president of the United States.
The fact that it works and is better for everyone all around just makes conservatives that much angrier.
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