There are so many young woman who need to be able to access affordable reproductive health care. I was one of them when I was in my late teens and 20s. I am a professional now with a good job and health insurance. I can go to a doctor whenever I feel it is necessary. But as a young adult, I relied on Family Planning services because they were affordable. I would not have been able to pay for a doctor’s visit and the full cost of birth control pills. It was my only point of entry into our health care system. Women spend 30 years of their life trying to prevent a pregnancy and it is no easy thing to accomplish. Many women are faced with at least one unplanned pregnancy in their lifetime. We can’t expect to reduce the number of abortions while we cut access to reproductive health care for low-income women.
If we don’t assist people with the support, information and access to services they need to bring healthy wanted children into the world then we should prepare to build more prisons and to adequately fund our foster care system and addiction treatment programs. When our youth aren’t getting what they need to grow up and be contributing citizens in our communities then we have a responsibility to put safety nets in place. Doesn’t it make far more sense to fund reproductive health care in the first place then to risk raising the number of unwanted pregnancies?
There is a lot of false information about Family Planning being broadcasted. Know the facts. Abortions are 10 percent of what Family Planning does. That means 90 percent of what they do is provide quality health care for low income people. I was very grateful to have it when I needed it.
Tracy Mayer
Kalispell