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2009, Colorado the public health department launched an initiative that helped family planning clinics expand access to low-cost or no-cost contraceptives and reproductive health care. For 2016, the state’s birth rate it fell by 54 per cent For women aged 15 to 19 and the abortion rate it fell by 63 per cent between the same age groups.
“We were surprised by the on-board and reduction in unwanted pregnancy rates, but she was happy because it had that effect,” says Angela Fellers LeMire, who oversaw the initiative as the interim program manager for the Colorado Family Planning Program. “Everyone in the rural area and the state health department felt good about the work we were doing.”
Now, a study published in May Advances in Science shows that the Colorado Family Planning Initiative (CFPI) had one more advantage: more young women in high school graduated. Researchers at the University of Colorado’s Boulder and Denver campuses, in collaboration with the U.S. Census Bureau, conducted the research.
Using the statue American Community Survey and other census data from 2009 to 2017, the authors compared Colorado graduation rates with those of 17 other states without a state-approved family planning program and subsequent policies. Researchers have estimated that the program has reduced the percentage of Colorado women between the ages of 20 and 22 without a high school diploma by 14 percent. As a result, it was estimated that there were 3,800 more women born between 1994 and 1996 who had completed high school before the age of thirty.
“As someone who learns the subject, I was amazed. I didn’t expect to see a big effect, ”says research author Amanda Stevenson, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Over the decades, there has been an anecdotal link between access to birth control and education or other achievements. Part of the reasons for family planning programs include X title federal program–Provides reproductive health services, including birth control, to low-income and uninsured residents– Fertility control offers other potential socioeconomic benefits, such as the ability of people to complete their education. The new research, says Emily Johnston, a senior research associate at the Urban Institute for Economic and Social Policy Research, “answers a long-standing question in the field: What are the impacts, in addition to fertility, on people’s lives?”
“So far, evidence of the effects of contraception on women’s education and choice dates back to the 1960s and 1970s, but much has changed since then,” wrote Martha Bailey, a professor of economics at the University of California, Los Angeles. WIRED in an email. “This article shows that getting contraceptives can help women take advantage of opportunities and boost their opportunities in the job market.”
Access to birth control — access to abortion or adoption services, school quality, fertility rates, or the presence of school programs for pregnant women — was key to helping increase birth control rates. the authors compared the changes seen in Colorado with 17 other sets of states. (The comparison states were Arizona, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island.) These states were similar. High school graduation rates and state policies generally extend to Medicaid insurance coverage. “Anything is possible, but we haven’t found any statewide policy changes that have influenced those factors,” Stevenson says.
Another factor that could have an impact on pregnancy and high school graduation rates would be if adolescents became less sexually active. But, Johnston says, it’s hard to be the only Colorado. “You should have reason to believe that sexual activity is changing in different ways for different situations,” she says.
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