Prevention First
Background on Prevention First:
A year ago, NARAL Pro-Choice America issued an open letter to President Bush and the far-right, asking the anti-choice movement, including congressional members and President Bush, to help find a common ground that would increase responsible family planning services and prevent unintended pregnancies. In the past year, we have heard nothing back.
At NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon, we believe that all Americans can find common ground in achieving the goal of preventing unintended pregnancies through proven prevention policies.
As part of our national “Prevention First Challenge for Common Ground” initiative, NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon is asking for help to urge public officials to work with us on tested and proven strategies aimed directly at reducing unintended pregnancies and the need for abortions. We think it’s time to give women the tools they need to protect themselves by promoting policies related to comprehensive sex education, contraception and family planning, and guaranteed access to prescriptions.
The Prevention First Act (S 20):In January 2005, Senator Harry Reid (NV) introduced the Prevention First Act (S 20) - a challenge to find common ground in preventing unintended pregnancies by arming women with the tools they need to protect themselves - access to information, contraception and affordable health care services. In California and nationwide, an overwhelming majority of people support putting prevention first because they know that preventative care is the best way to protect women.
Here are the facts:
· Emergency contraception is a safe and effective way to prevent unintended pregnancy after unprotected sex. It is estimated that the use of emergency contraception could cut the number of unintended pregnancies in half, thereby reducing the need for abortion. In 2000, 51,000 abortions were prevented by use of emergency contraception; increased use of emergency contraception accounted for up to 43 percent of the total decline in abortions between 1994 and 2000.
· Access to comprehensive sex education is critical to reducing rates of unintended pregnancy, abortion, and STD infection among teens. Teens who receive sex education that includes discussion of contraception are more likely than those who receive abstinence-only messages to delay sex and to have fewer partners and use contraceptives when they do become sexually active.
· In 2000, 34 million women (half of all women of reproductive age-ages 15-44) were in need of contraceptive services and supplies to help prevent unintended pregnancy, and half of those were in need of public support for such care.
· Increasing access to family planning services will improve women’s health and reduce the rates of unintended pregnancy, abortion, and infection with STDs. Contraceptive use saves public health; every dollar spent on providing family planning services saves an estimated $3 in expenditures for pregnancy-related and newborn care for Medicaid alone.
· Many poor and low-income women cannot afford to purchase contraceptive services and supplies on their own. More than 12 million, or 20% of all women aged 15-24, were uninsured in 2002, and that proportion has increased by 10 percent since 1999.
Public health programs like Medicaid and Title X, the national family planning program, provide high-quality family planning services and other preventive health care to underinsured or uninsured individuals who may otherwise lack access to health care.
Below is a list of the bill's cosponsors from Oregon:
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