Our conservative right to lifers believe that by not allowing women to choose whether or not to have children they are doing some good. There are however, other consequences of their short sighted views:
new study finds that the cost of unintended pregnancies is large, and much of the bill — about $11 billion per year — goes to government programs and ultimately taxpayers.
And:
They found that rates of unintended pregnancy are far higher among poor and near-poor women (those with incomes under twice the federal poverty level) than those with higher incomes. As a result, nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of the 1.6 million births resulting from unintended pregnancies in 2006 were paid for by public health insurance programs. Put another way, just over half of all births paid for by those programs, 51 percent, were the result of unintended pregnancies.
Medicynical Note: These “moral” people think nothing of impinging on the freedom of choice of women while condoning cutting support programs to these same mothers and children, sentencing them to a life of struggle and poverty. Not a very pretty picture.
An added consequence of this type budget cut will be it’s impact on contraception access and use which will add up to more unintended pregnancies and more of the above. The policy change is counterintuitive, sacreligious and not very smart.
But then again that’s America in the 21st century–continuous war, “enhanced interrogation,” 50 million uninsured, budget cuts to the poor and middle class, don’t raise the debt limit and, oh yes, according to reliable sources the world is to end on May 21st.
Medicynic 