Unintended Pregnancies Cost Taxpayers $11 Billion A Year: Report

During a recent debate over a bill that would make it necessary for women to buy separate, abortion-only insurance policies to cover the expensive procedure, some Kansas lawmakers questioned whether it was realistic to expect women to prepare in advance for a rape or an unplanned pregnancy.

Rep. Pete Degraaf (R-Mulvane), in response, compared an accidental pregnancy to a flat tire.

"We do need to plan ahead, don't we, in life?" said Degraaf during the House debate. "I have a spare tire on my car."

Conservative state lawmakers have spent their 2011 legislative sessions trying to make it as difficult and costly as possible for women to access both abortions and family planning services, ostensibly to prevent taxpayers and business owners from indirectly paying for abortions. But experts worry that this kind of social policy actually encourages unplanned pregnancies and births, which come at a very high cost to the American public.

A new study by the Guttmacher Institute, a leading reproductive health research and advocacy group, estimates that unintended pregnancies cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $11.1 billion dollars a year. Nearly two-thirds of unintended pregnancies -- roughly a million births -- are publicly funded by Medicaid and other government programs, the report shows.

At the same time, the demand for abortions among low-income women has been on the rise since the recession. The abortion rate increased 18 percent among poor women between 2000 and 2008, according to another recent Guttmacher report, as a result of their inability to afford or access contraceptive services and their perceived inability to support a child.

“Anti-abortion restrictions and cuts to publicly funded family planning services disproportionately affect poor women, making it even more difficult for them to gain access to the contraceptive and abortion services they need," said study author Rachel K. Jones. "It certainly appears these women are being underserved."

Prior to this year, approximately 87 percent of private insurance plans covered abortions. But some type of insurance-coverage ban is now on the books in 11 states, and in the most recent legislative session, legislators in 23 states filed 53 new bills restricting abortion coverage in state-based public health exchanges or across private insurance plans.

Moreover, the House recently voted in favor of H.R. 3, which would disincentivize private insurance companies from covering abortion and penalize small businesses that buy plans that include such coverage.

Now, in addition to forcing many women to pay out-of-pocket for expensive abortion procedures or buy separate insurance plans to cover them, even in cases of rape or incest, states are potentially fueling the rate of unintended pregnancies by cutting family planning. Numerous states, including Indiana, Kansas, Texas, Wisconsin and Tennessee, have passed or filed legislation to defund Planned Parenthood because some of its clinics offer abortions, despite the fact that it would block millions of low-income men and women's access to affordable birth control and contraceptive services.

Wisconsin advanced a budget bill this week that would cut men out of its state family planning program altogether, and Medicaid patients can no longer receive any kind of free care at Planned Parenthood of Indiana. The conservative lawmakers pushing those bills say they want to prevent taxpayer-funded abortions, but by cutting family planning services, they are forcing taxpayers are carrying a much heavier burden.

"Bottom line, we can avoid unintended pregnancies and the abortions that often follow and the costs that often follow if we invest in, rather than cut, state family planning services that help women plan and space the pregnancies they want," said Adam Sonfield, senior policy director at the Guttmacher Institute.

The Guttmacher Institute estimates that every dollar invested in family planning saves state governments $3.74 in Medicaid costs and pregnancy related care.

"We've seen that the states in recent years that have expanded their coverage of family planning services under Medicaid have been able to help more women and men access contraception and avoid unintended pregnancy and abortion," Sonfield told HuffPost. "Any steps away from that are bound to have the opposite effect."

Comments

[playsindirt]

01:01 PM on 06/03/2011

We can't afford to outlaw abortion. So all those conservatives who are screaming about our economy need to decide whether they like money or babies better.

[philosophicgirl]

09:55 PM on 05/29/2011

"Rep. Pete Degraaf (R-Mulvane), in response, compared an accidental pregnancy to a flat tire.
"We do need to plan ahead, don't we, in life?" said Degraaf during the House debate. "I have a spare tire on my car.""
(The definition of stupid: "regarded as unintelligent: regarded as showing a lack of intelligence, perception, or common sense")
I think that covers the 1st point I want to make.

2nd. This is a perfect way to illustrate the difference between men and women:
Regardless of what a woman believes or thinks about abortion, whether they are 100% pro-choice or 100% pro-life, there isn't A WOMAN alive who would COMPARE an ACCIDENTAL PREGNANCY to a FLAT TIRE.

Finally, the more I think about the various comments which show the greatest "lack of intelligence" YET are being said by "those who are supposed to represent us" and entered into the public record (about abortion, health care, women, children, seniors, workers, rights, etc.).
I'm honestly starting to question "who" are the ones who in truly appear least to place the lowest value on ALL LIFE.

[ElBruce]

05:24 PM on 05/28/2011

I take Degraaf's statement as support for access to contraception, emergency contraception and a full range of family planning services, including abortion if necessary. That's planning ahead.

[Kenz300]

02:04 PM on 05/28/2011

Being a good parent means you can take care of the child you bring into the world.

That means financially and emotionally. Contraception and family planning are important to building healthy families. Children should not be having children.

[Earl Gray]

07:33 PM on 05/26/2011

With his outrageous statement he is either implying that women should consider rape to be somehow inevitable and worthy of purchasing separate insurance to protect against it or else that the catastrophy of pregnancy due to rape is simply not his problem and that he should not have to "pay for it" by including the "risk" in "his" insurance policy.

I wonder how Rep. DeGraaf would react to Congress telling the State of Kansas that there will be no disaster relief money for his state because it "should have planned ahead"? What if I don't want to be responsible for his citizens' poor "lifestyle choice" to build homes and cities and lives in Tornado Alley?

Wow.

[cafebeege]

01:53 PM on 05/26/2011

Mandatory temporary birth control implanted under the skin (yes, pharmaceutical companies can do that) until both the males and females are self-supporting and emotionally and physically able to care for a child. PERIOD......We need to pass regulations to get driver's license, age requirements to drink, vote, etc, etc. This would eliminate need for abortions or welfare to pay for support of these kids.....and the abuse cases we often see. Even if taxes paid for the birth control, less than these other expenses.

[alteredstory]

05:24 PM on 05/26/2011

Plus, we need to get a handle on birth rates. A plan like that would stop abuses like people with ten kids.

[cafebeege]

07:08 PM on 05/26/2011

I don't know alter......once they have proved they are fit parents, and if they can support them, then we don't have a right to tell them how many they can have. I just attended a funeral for an aunt in the last week. She and her husband were AMAZING. I even raved about them at the luncheon afterwards. Like several of my aunts and uncles, these has 7 kids. ALL went on to be productive members of society. Some even dentists, lawyers, engineers, etc., etc. All themselves happily married (mostly----2 divorces and remarriages out of the seven). As long as those parents having 10 kids that you mentioned raise contributing members of society, that's fine. It's just the ones who are reproducing like dogs with no idea how they are going to take care of them physically, financially or emotionally that create suffering and pain for those children and society in the long run.

Line all adolescents up and implant that temporary birth control under the skin. Yeah, I can hear the ACLU screaming now....:o/

[Anne Mccormick]

11:29 PM on 05/27/2011

do you honestly think the ACLU will stand for what you're suggesting? in any case, who are you to decide if and when i can have a child. the only person you can make that decision for is yourself.

[Trillian4210]

03:51 PM on 05/25/2011

Here's a hypthetical (probable actuality somewhere): A woman gets pregnant, thinks about an abortion since she can't afford a child. The right convinces her not to, professes love of her unborn child and urges her to do the same. She keeps the child, ends up on welfare because (as noted earlier) she can't afford it. Same righties now tell her she's lazy and seeking only handouts. Then her child--a daughter--is raped and becomes pregnant.

The same party that professed to love her so much--in the WOMB--has now completely abandoned her.


And that, my friends, is the Republican agenda.

[Weaziller]

02:52 PM on 05/25/2011

To the people shrieking about their tax dollars paying for abortions: THEY DON'T. It's illegal. This is the crux of the article: "A new study by the Guttmacher Institute, a leading reproductive health research and advocacy group, estimates that unintended pregnancies cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $11.1 billion dollars a year. Nearly two-thirds of unintended pregnancies -- roughly a million births -- are publicly funded by Medicaid and other government programs, the report shows."
THAT'S where your tax dollars are going. So women CAN have these babies. If you don't like paying for poor women's babies, stop trying to take away their access to affordable birth control and family planning facilities like PP.
Taxes are a part of living in this country. Deal with it or relocate.

[PrehensileOne]

04:55 PM on 05/25/2011

Actually the study includes all forms of government spending, and several states do help people pay to terminate pregnancy. Specifically, the report cites $97 million tax payer dollars spent this way. The total cost would have been $1.5 Billion higher if 168,000 women in the study group had not chosen this option. So your point is still valid.

[Weaziller]

10:16 AM on 05/26/2011

Hmmm...I read the link but did not see that statistic anywhere. Perhaps I missed it? However, the Hyde Amendment specifies that no federal funding can be used for abortion except in the cases of rape, incest or if the life of the mother is threatened.

[boston996]

12:22 PM on 05/25/2011

Just because you are poor does not give you the right to claim victim to unintended pregnancies. It is more personal responsibility and being accountable for your actions.
And I am not talking about rape, that is a separate issue.

[Rush Libraughl 83]

12:06 PM on 05/25/2011

I'm pro-choice. And yeah, this is expensive and it sucks but my tax dollars go to plenty of things I don't like. I don't like my tax dollars paying for a war I don't believe in, I don't like my tax dollars going to a bank bailout, I don't like my tax dollars paying for people visiting the ER rather than full health care, I don't like my tax dollars paying for corn subsidies...To people that don't like their tax dollars paying for abortions...honestly...just deal with it...if people REALLY want choice you should argue about the root of the problem. Choice...with all this technology how come tax paying citizens can't choose where their money goes? I'd love to give the vast majority of the tax dollars that are taken from my income towards health, education and things I care about and think that matter.

[Trillian4210]

03:53 PM on 05/25/2011

f/f

[Astraea Muse]

03:25 PM on 05/31/2011

TAX PAYER DOLLARS CANNOT PAY FOR ABORTIONS. It's been illegal for a generation (since 1976), since the Hyde Amendment was first passed. How hard is this to comprehend?

[Rush Libraughl 83]

03:53 PM on 05/31/2011

@Astraea Muse, Hey hey now...Don't get sassy. Didn't know that existed; it's before my time. So that's fair, it's law...but now answer me this...Why? Back to my argument what's the difference between me paying for a war (usually ends up in deaths of Americans), and me paying for abortions (also usually ending up in deaths of Americans)? Also, how is abortion care, not included in healthcare? Also, if a woman is attacked and the result is her being pregnant she should foot the bill? You think that's ok?

[Jacquie Hamilton]

11:50 AM on 05/25/2011

Investment in family planning = fewer unintended pregnancies and the cost that follows.and fewer abortions What about this is hard? Obviously this is not about the costs and funding it's about the social agenda again.

[King Banhammer]

12:00 PM on 05/25/2011

Very much so. The responses here keep proving it, too.

[Waterphoneman]

11:17 AM on 05/25/2011

Fund contraceptives or fund abortions or fund all those babies. The choices are simple but making them is difficult.

[Amber Versola]

11:16 AM on 05/25/2011

KS NOW is sending DeGraaf spare tires. The event is on fb and at ksnow.org

[King Banhammer]

11:44 AM on 05/25/2011

Nice.

[lrobb]

10:56 AM on 05/25/2011

Democrats believe sex is inevitable. Republicans think sex can be completely prevented by good behavior. Both are out of their minds.

In America for several centuries prior to the 1960's the overwhelming majority of births were to married women. So much for inevitability. Sex is a biological imperative. Once the emotions and senses are engaged "good behavior" becomes far more difficult by orders of magnitude.

Both parties are dealing with what they think "should" happen in an ideological vacuum. In the real world, unmarried women are getting pregnant. In the real world, a vast minority of voters think abortion should be drastically limited. In the real world, the adoption rate for minority and special needs babies is extremely low.

At some point conservatives, which direction I lean moderately, are going to have to admit unplanned or unwanted children are a serious driver of our deficit. If you don't like abortion, free or highly reduced cost birth control is the only other viable option

Liberals will have to admit there are places in the US where their views are anethema. A twenty week limit, a wailing period and an untrasound are a fairly low price to pay for continuing access to the procedure off the taxpayer dime.

[KDMac]

11:05 AM on 05/25/2011

Could you please start a 3rd party and run for office? I'd vote for you : )

[lrobb]

11:25 AM on 05/25/2011

Anyone who runs for office in today's toxic environment is certifiably insane. Who would knowingly vote for a crazy person?

I favor requiring "none of the above" to be added to the ballot for every local, state and federal office.

[Debbie Shoemaker]

11:10 AM on 05/25/2011

Hey, you sound all reasonable and everything, until that last part, where you say that taxpayers are paying for abortions. That shows you either ignorant or stupid which totally washes away any reasonableness you may have had...good try.

HYDE AMENDMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[dbishop76]

10:55 AM on 05/25/2011

I am pretty much sick of hearing how every woman who unintentionally gets pregnant is somehow irresponsible. Birth control FAILS. I know this because my partner's vasectomy DID fail. One can hardly accuse us being irresponsible and playing fast and loose with birth control.

[Debbie Shoemaker]

11:01 AM on 05/25/2011

I hear ya, my birth control failed and I have a 14 year old son. But my husband and I were able to emotionally and financially deal with an unintended pregnancy...there are women who are not so lucky and they deserve some respect for the difficult decisions they will be making, not judgment.

[Seven Teenatheart]

11:02 AM on 05/25/2011

Thank you for your post. The comments about irresponsible women sound like they're back from the dark ages.
It takes two to tango, and people need to realize that birth control, while a great invention, isn't a perfect/100% effective solution.