Colorado’s Success in Preventing Unintended Pregnancy is at Risk
Since 2009 an increased investment in affordable birth control methods and family planning services has led to astonishing results in Colorado including:
54% drop in the teen birth rate,
63% decrease in abortions, and
$66M+ in avoided public health related costs. [Source: CDPHE]
And what matters most are the thousands of girls and women (and their partners), represented by these numbers, who avoided an unintended pregnancy that could have delayed or derailed their educational, career, family and/or life goals.
What is at Risk:
More than 325,000 girls and women in Colorado are in need of publicly funded birth control methods and family planning services. And recent federal policy changes and proposals threaten their ability to access and afford those services including:
Birth Control Mandate Rollback: 30,000 women in Colorado are at risk for losing free contraceptive coverage provided by their employer,
Expired! Community Health Center (CHC) Fund: 20 CHCs with 100+ clinical sites in 61 of the 64 counties serving 700,000 Coloradans face a 70% reduction in program funding,
Eliminate Title X Funding: Title X is the only federal grant program dedicated to family planning services and related preventive care and 55,000 Coloradans receive family planning services from 69 clinics funded by Title X around the state, and
Reverse Medicaid Expansion: funding that provided women’s health services to 100,000+ women is under threat by the ACA repeal efforts and budget negotiations.
In response, GHF has launched Coloradans for Birth Control (CO4BC), a pooled and rapid response fund, to support our right to freely plan our families (when, how many or whether to have children) by removing barriers for Coloradans to access – and medical professionals to provide – affordable birth control methods and family planning services.
