There is no scenario in which a teenager having an unintended baby is a good thing. It is a broad statement with which I am comfortable, and for which any exception should be as rare as “hen’s teeth.” How do we prevent the inevitable result from a thoughtless and youthful decision made at a time when good decision-making is virtually impossible?
If there is anyone out there reading this that believes abstinence actually is the answer, please stop reading now and save your blood pressure because you are clearly too old to remember when your desires overwhelmed your good judgment.
We exercise poor judgment all the time and our best hope is that the results do not become life altering and irrevocable. We carry property and liability insurance for such occasions.
I learned about a study this week that offered a form of free insurance to teenagers and poor women.
According to a 2015 New York Times report, the state of Colorado in 2009 participated in a study funded by the foundation named for the late wife of billionaire Warren Buffett. It was a study that offered an option for free long-term birth control to poor women and teenagers.
This wasn’t providing the pill; it was a choice of multi-year implants or an intrauterine device. Something with a 99% success rate as opposed to the 95% success rate of “the pill.” Something that doesn’t require daily action by the user to be effective. The American Academy of Pediatrics has recently recognized the long-term prevention devices as the best option for teens due to safety and efficacy.
First objective of the study was to learn if the women given the choice would even take advantage of the opportunity. They did; in large numbers.
This, of course, wouldn’t be a story if the results of that choice weren’t so astounding. From 2009 to 2013 the teenage birthrate in Colorado plunged a whopping 40 percent. Even more important the abortion rate fell by 42 percent. In 2009 before they were offered the choice, half the first births were to poor women under the age of 21. By 2014 half of the first births did not occur until the women had turned 24.
In Colorado about one in five women ages 18 to 44 now use the long acting birth control method. The change at one family planning clinic went from giving out 30 devices in 2009 to giving out more than 2,000 in 2013. The Colorado state health department estimated that for every dollar they spent on the long acting birth control they saved $5.85 in state Medicaid costs.
Imagine cutting the unintended pregnancy rate in Mississippi by as much as 40 percent. In 2010 Mississippi spent $40.4 million on unintended pregnancies with an estimate that three out of four teen pregnancies are unintended.
The foreseeable ripple effect from reducing the teen pregnancy rate is a game changer for education, poverty, employment, health care and their many associated tax consequences. What could possibly be the reason not to provide this safer, more effective method for preventing an unwanted pregnancy? What conceivable down side is there to offer options that keep children from having children?
In Starkville there is a much-lauded program known as Bridges Out of Poverty. The founder of the local program, Lynn Phillips-Gaines shares a statistic that is emblematic of the need for our community to rethink how we address the causes of long-term and systemic poverty.
If we can get our female children to earn a high school diploma, get past the age of 21 without having had an unplanned pregnancy, and obtain full time employment, she and her family have a 90 percent chance of not living in poverty.
How do we ensure that everyone has a similar opportunity to succeed? Being poor doesn’t immunize you against human desires and temptations. The difference is that when you are poor you have no insurance policy allowing you to recover and then have a chance to succeed.
It is time we acknowledge we are investing at the wrong time. Let’s get on the front side of this issue and make available resources allowing teens and poor women to make it past their most vulnerable stage in life.
Raise your hand if you didn’t make more than a few mistakes in your teens. Many of us were lucky enough to get away with it or had the support we needed to get past it.
Lynn Spruill, a former commercial airline pilot, elected official and city administrator owns and manages Spruill Property Management in Starkville. Her email address is [email protected].
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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