07-25-2014, 06:05 PM
(07-25-2014, 04:45 PM)Duchess Wrote: 40% is a lot! Kudos to them for a wonderful initiative.
It's awesome.
I really hope to see the initiative replicated in other states.
Take any moral and religious factors outta the equation and there's absolutely no reason for any state not to implement something similar from a social and economic perspective, IMO.
Aside from a 40% reduction in unplanned teen births, the teen abortion rate has also declined by 35% in the five years since the initiative was launched.
And, while the state of Colorado has subsidized or paid for the birth control, the financial benefits exceed the costs. The infant caseload for Colorado WIC, a program that provides nutrition education and support to low-income women and their babies, fell 23 percent from 2008 to 2013. And Colorado saved millions in health care expenditures associated with teen births, $42.5 million in public funds in 2010 alone based on the latest available data.
All very good stuff.