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Home » Health Care Providers » Politics and Reproductive Health News » Ten Important Facts About Reproductive Health

  1. FACT: Family planning is cost effective, but does not receive enough public funding for low income women and men.
    • Each public dollar spent to provide family planning services saves an average of $3 in Medicaid cost for pregnancy-related and newborn care alone (1).
    • Funding for Title X--the government program for providing funds for gynecological exams, pregnancy testing, contraception, and screenings for for people at 200% of poverty level or below--has not kept pace with either inflation or increased demand for services.
  2. FACT: The United States teen pregnancy rates are much higher than many other developed countries (2).
  3. FACT: There are no data demonstrating the effectiveness of abstinence-only sex education projects.
  4. FACT: Almost half of all pregnancies in the US are unintended (3).
  5. FACT: Women of reproductive age currently spend 68 percent more in out-of-pocket health care costs than men, primarily because of reproductive health-related costs (4).
  6. FACT: Legal restrictions on abortion do not reduce the number of abortions.
    • There is little relationship between abortion legality and abortion incidence, but there is a strong correlation between abortion legality and abortion safety (5).
    • In some countries where abortion is illegal, the abortion rate surpasses that of women in the US.
  7. FACT: Access to safe abortion services saves lives.
    • Denying women the right to abortion services does not eliminate the need for abortion services--in countries where abortion is illegal, and in regions where abortion is legal but often unavailable, women still find ways to end unintended pregnancies (6). These abortions are often performed illicitly and under unsafe conditions.
    • 80,000 women die every year from unsafe abortions (7).
  8. FACT: Although abortion is legal in the US, abortion services are not widely available.
    • Eighty-six percent of US counties have no abortion provider (8).
    • There has been a steady decline in abortion providers over the past two decades.
    • Only 12 percent of all obstetrician/gynecology (ob/gyn) residency programs require training in first trimester abortion and 91 percent of ob/gyn residents report having no experience with abortion procedures (9).
  9. FACT: Abortion is a simple, safe medical procedure.
    • The risk of death associated with abortion is approximately 0.6 per 100,000 abortions, and the risk of major complications is less than 1 percent (10).
  10. FACT: Second and third trimester abortions are uncommon.
    • Almost 90 percent of abortions are performed in the first trimester of pregnancy (within the first 12 weeks after the first day of the last menstrual period) (11).
    • Fewer than 2 percent of abortions are performed after 20 weeks (11).

References

  1. Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI). "Title X and U.S. Family Planning Effort." Facts in Brief. New York: AGI, 1997. http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/ib16.html
  2. Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI), "Sex and America's Teenagers", New York: AGI, 1994, pp. 19-20.
  3. Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI). "The Role of Contraception in Reducing Abortion." Issues in Brief. New York: AGI, 1998. http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/ib_0599.html
  4. Women's Research and Education Institute (WREI), Women's Health Insurance Costs and Experiences, Washington, DC: WREI, 1994. http://www.wrei.org/pubs/pub_health03.htm
  5. Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI). "Abortion in Context: United States and Worldwide." Issues in Brief. New York: AGI, 1999. http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/ib_0599.html
  6. Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI). "The Incidence of Abortion Worldwide." International Family Planning Perspectives. New York: AGI, 1999. http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/25s3099.html
  7. WHO, Unsafe Abortion: Global and regional estimates of incidence and mortality due to unsafe abortion, WHO/RHT/MSM/97.16. Geneva: WHO, 1998.
  8. Henshaw, Stanley. 1998. Abortion Incidence and Services in the United States, 1995-1996. Family Planning Perspectives, 30(6).
  9. AMWA-RHI Website. http://www.amwa-doc.org/RHI.htm
  10. Gold, Rachel Benson. 1990. Abortion and Women's Health: A Turning Point for America? New York: The Alan Guttmacher Institute. Henshaw, Stanley K. 1998a. "Unintended Pregnancy in the United States." Family Planning Perspectives, 30(1), 24-29 & 46.
  11. Henshaw SK, Koonin LM, Smith JC. Characteristics of US women having abortions, 1987. Family Planning Perspectives. 1991;23:75-81.


















  
 

 

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