Our share of these costs comes out of our paychecks before we receive them. Are we paying attention to how much it is costing to provide health insurance for families in 2009?
These numbers jumped out of the page when I read Drew Altman’s article on the cost of employer provided health insurance. The projection for those costs to rise in the next 10 years reinforced for me the need for health care reform NOW.
So many young women who have a teen pregnancy find it daunting to think of completing their education. There seem to be many barriers – time, support, money, good child care, etc. But completing their education is the second most important thing they can do for themselves and their children. (The first most important issue is to obtain adequate health and medical care for mom and for baby.)This book supports, encourages and identifies young women who met the challenge and obtained higher education after experiencing a teen pregnancy. Education breaks the cycle of poverty; it enhances the potential for adequate income, health insurance, job security and a better life for her and for her child.
BEING a baby mama is no excuse for not finishing your education.Many women, though, use motherhood as an excuse to quit school. Only 40 percent of teen mothers who give birth before age 18 graduate from high school and less than 2 percent earn college degrees before age 30, according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.
Earlier this month, a woman came into the FPHS Drive-Up and made a donation. She told us that she had promised herself if she ever drove past our clinic and saw people protesting, she would make a contribution. That day, because the protesters were standing there, she drove around the block, into the Drive-Up, pulled out her checkbook and made a donation.
It happened again with a different person today — another donation because protesters were standing in front of the family planning clinic in Wausau.
It has been hard for FPHS staff, myself included, to understand the protests outside the clinic because we know that we provide caring, compassionate voluntary contraceptive care that prevents unintended pregnancy (and care that helps people take responsibility for their reproductive health including planning for healthy pregnancies when they are ready.)
Having two supporters take the time and make a gift to show their support for us and our services, makes all of us feel appreciated. I’d like to invite all of you to drive through (maybe pick up some condoms) or, if there’s no line, just tell the staff at the window that you support family planning.
I’m sure that there are many times when people speak up for access to birth control when it isn’t easy. To those who do, “THANK YOU!!”
My friend Anne, who is a family planning educator in Oneida County, sent me this article. We at FPHS were already noting a request for long-term, low maintenance methods. This was a post on the Huffington Post on Friday, March 27th, written by Christina Page the author of How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America.
Continue reading this article »
Last Saturday, March 14th, my co-worker Dino and I staffed the FPHS booth at the Aspirus Wausau Hospital Health Fair at the Cedar Creek Mall. This is a yearly event that FPHS has participated in for over 20 years. We have condoms to give away at our booths and in years past sometimes some people objected to that. Continue reading this article »
Continue reading this article »
The article below which we spied on RH Reality Check gives a college woman’s perspective on the increase
in costs for contraceptives on college campuses that occurred as a result of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005.
As the article states, the costs of contraceptives increased dramatically to college health departments as well as to safety-net providers (contraceptive providers for low-income women). The affordability problems women encountered made for hard choices for them…do I buy gas for the car to get to work or school or do I pay for my now-much-more- expensive birth control?
[We recieved this today from The Guttmacher Institute, and wanted to make sure to pass it along.]
Publicly funded family planning programs save the U.S. billions of dollars each year though the prevention of about 1.94 million unintended pregnancies, including nearly 400,000 teenage pregnancies, in the U.S., according to a report released Tuesday by the Guttmacher Institute, the AP/Miami Herald reports. The report estimates that the unintended pregnancies prevented each year would have resulted in 810,000 abortions, 270,000 miscarriages and 860,000 unintended births. The report states that without publicly funded family planning programs, the U.S. abortion rate would be nearly two-thirds higher than the current level and nearly twice as high among low-income women.
To celebrate National Condom Week 2009, we did a little research on the history of condoms.
Condoms have been around for a very long time. A brief summary of the history of condoms:
1000 B.C. – Condom use can be traced back several thousand years. Images from around 1000 BC show the ancient Egyptians wearing linen sheathes. It’s unclear if they wore these condom-like sheathes for protection or for ritual. Very likely they were used to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Continue reading this article »
I am excited about this incoming president. During all my years at Family Planning Health Services (34), I’ve seen how different administrations impact the family planning programming in Wisconsin and around the country. In the years prior to 1980, family planning programs were a given within the field of health care. Our services were recognized as needed and an integral part of providing quality health care. Since family planning providers could offer confidential services and excellent reproductive health education, these programs were seen as essential and highly valuable to the country and the communities they served. Continue reading this article »
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal plans to challenge the newly released Health and Human Services “Conscience Rule.” Read his comments on the rule and his plans. This may be the first of many challenges to this rule which is scheduled to go into effect January 18, 2009.
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (D) on Friday said that he plans to challenge the new HHS provider “conscience” rule, which he said could override a Connecticut law that requires hospitals to provide emergency contraception to women who have been raped, the AP/New Haven Register reports (AP/New Haven Register, 12/20). The rule, which will take effect on Jan. 18, 2009, allows employees of entities that receive federal grants to refuse to provide medical information and services they object to based on moral or religious beliefs. The more than 584,000 entities that the rule will affect have until Oct. 1, 2009, to submit written certification of their compliance or risk losing federal funding (Daily Women’s Health Policy Report, 12/19).
