(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Family Planning?

Over at Nerve, Kara Jesella reminds us that it’s not just abortion access that’s become restricted in the U.S. Women–especially young and low-income women–are having a hard time getting contraception. Even at Planned Parenthood.
This is how you know it’s gotten bad.
Jesella mentions Hannah, 17, who couldn’t afford Planned Parenthood’s $100 exam and $40-per-pack birth control. Jennifer, 24, also tried to get the Pill through Planned Parenthood, which had a hard time understanding her lack of health insurance. Erin, 25, left her local clinic without the morning-after pill when she was told it would cost $50.

Women I spoke with reported encounters with clueless receptionists and lines worthy of the DMV. (One woman says she waited three hours to see a doctor for the morning-after pill; eventually, she got the prescription, but never did get to see a doctor.) Voicemail systems are hard to navigate; many phones are staffed only during business hours, when most women aren’t able to deal with their reproductive-health issues.

The point here isn’t to knock Planned Parenthood, an important and effective organization that is doing everything it can in the face of an administration that’s incredibly hostile to reproductive rights. Jesella’s point– and it’s a good one– is that restrictive state legislation and stagnant Title X funding have had a real impact on young, uninsured and low-income women’s access to family planning services.

We’re talking about a lot of people here. One in four American women will go to Planned Parenthood in their lifetime. Young adults aged 19 to 29 are one of the largest and fastest-growing segments of the U.S. population without health insurance. And it’s estimated that 30 percent of federally funded family-planning recipients are younger than 20; 50 percent are between 20 and 29.
Which makes this really bad news:

Title X’s annual budget is $283 million; if it had kept pace with inflation, that number would be $693 million. But instead of increasing funding, the Bush administration is funneling money to abstinence-only education, which doesn’t provide information on contraception — or health care.

The Senate just passed a $38 billion deficit reduction that dramatically cuts Medicaid and Medicare services. According to The New York Times, 13 million low-income people face new or higher co-payments for medical services. More than 100,000 will lose health-care coverage altogether. Federally funded health clinics will have to pick up the slack.

It’s no wonder that clinics like Planned Parenthood are seeing increased demand and having to charge more– and that women are suffering as a result.

Last year, a government study found that adult women were opting out of birth control in surprising numbers. “It seems to represent access problems and affordability,” says Jeffrey Jensen, director of the Women’s Health Research Unit at Oregon Health and Science University. Even patients with private insurance often can’t afford the co-payments. Plus, he adds, drug companies have cut back on free samples. As a result, women turn to less-effective types of birth control and run a greater risk of unwanted pregnancy.

And many of the same restrictions we associate with abortion — like parental notification and targeted regulation of providers — are being applied to contraception, too.

In some states, there are proposals to require parental notification before clinics can dispense birth control to teens; in South Dakota, one bill would impose a $200 fine and jail time upon public-school teachers who refer students to family-planning services.

Yet another reason why the abortion-rights backslide is so scary. It won’t stop when Roe is overturned. They’re coming for Griswold next.