GOP abortion plans could lead to more teen pregnancies, abortions in Minnesota

Congressional Republicans are set to vote on a trio of bills intended to prevent health care clinics that perform abortions from receiving federal funds, and leadership has offered a budget that slashes the Title X program, which funds contraception and reproductive health services. A study by the Guttmacher Institute released on Wednesday shows that those cuts would be devastating to low-income women in Minnesota. Without this funding, Minnesota would’ve seen 33 percent more teenage pregnancies — and a spike in the number of abortions.

Currently, Congress is set to vote on HR 3, the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortions Act; HR 358, the Protect Life Act; and HR 217, the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act, and the Republican budget proposal could slash the entire $327 million Title X program.

Republican Reps. Michele Bachmann, Erik Paulsen, Chip Cravaack and John Kline and Democratic Rep. Collin Peterson are among the members of the Minnesota delegation that are sponsoring one or more of these bills.

Though current federal law prohibits federal funds from paying for abortions, clinics that perform the procedure can receive federal money for testing for sexually transmitted diseases, distribution of contraceptives such as condoms or birth control prescriptions, and providing preventative health tests such as breast exams and pap smears.

According to the Guttmacher study, in 2008 clinics that received Title X funding helped 7,600 women avoid unintended pregnancies which would have resulted in an estimated 3,200 abortions.

Using data from 2006, the study found that in that year, Title X–funded clinics helped 2,575 women younger than 20 to avoid unintended pregnancies. Without those services, teen pregnancy in Minnesota would be 33 percent higher today.

Young and low-income women are heavy users of Title X-supported clinics, and because of this access to contraceptive services many of those women avoided unplanned pregnancies. “By helping women avoid unintended pregnancies and the births that would follow, the services provided at Title X–supported centers in Minnesota saved $19,872,000 in public funds in 2008,” the study’s authors noted.

The study notes that 12 percent of Minnesota women aged 15 to 44 do not have health insurance and “Title X–supported family planning centers play an especially important role in serving the uninsured, who often cannot afford to pay out-of-pocket at private health care providers.”

The study also found that in 2009, more than a quarter of a million low-income women — 274,900– used publicly funded contraceptive services.

“These services are vital,” the study’s authors concluded. “U.S. women who are not using contraceptives, or who are using them inconsistently, represent one-third of all women at risk of unintended pregnancy and account for 95 percent of the three million unintended pregnancies that occur every year.”

Efforts to repeal Title X funding “would be devastating to Minnesota women, particularly for those working paycheck to paycheck to make ends meet,” said Linnea House, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Minnesota.

“Title X funding saves lives,” she said. “In addition to making contraception accessible and affordable to tens of thousands of women and men throughout the state, Title X funding also covers cancer screenings and other basic health care services.”

And she said that Title X money, as the Guttmacher research shows, reduces the need for women to obtain abortions.

“It is the height of hypocrisy for anti-choice politicians to seek to abolish a program that helps prevent unintended pregnancy and reduce the need for abortion,” she told the Minnesota Independent, adding, “How many jobs will be generated by eliminating women’s access to birth control?”