HIV Prevention and Title X

More than 56,000 new cases of HIV are diagnosed every year; the number of new HIV infections in Minnesota rose 25 percent in 2009. This increase brings the number of new HIV cases back to levels seen in the 90's.

According to the Minnesota AIDS project, this dramatic increase in HIV infections can be linked to the decline of comprehensive sex ed in public schools, a general sense that the risk of contracting HIV is low and the perception that HIV is a manageable disease. These and other social factors have contributed to men ages 15 to 24 seeing the largest increase in HIV cases in Minnesota.

Prevention is the key to saving lives and money. Prevention begins with comprehensive sex education. Young people need to know behaviors that put a person at risk for HIV/STIs and the methods to best prevent exposure. Through Title X funding, Planned Parenthood provided counseling, education and conducted 10,000 HIV tests in Minnesota last year. Unfortunately, Title X funding and other preventative care funding is at risk of being eliminated by the GOP majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. While the U.S. Senate rejected the budget bill removing funding from Planned Parenthood, we still do not have a finalized budget.

Removing funding from preventative health programs is negligent and short-sighted. Public health programs have helped prevent 340,000 babies from being born with HIV. Cutting funding for these programs would have a devastating effect for a generation of children being born with HIV especially when mother to child transmission is easily preventable. Cost to treat one HIV infection is over $25,000 per year, but programs to help cover the costs of these treatments may also be cut pushing the burden onto states. Public Health programs need to be above petty partisan politics, preventing disease and promoting health benefits all.

The importance of Title X

Planned Parenthood has served Minnesotans for over 80 years, helping men and women access comprehensive, medically accurate information and basic health care. 64,000 men and women in Minnesota utilize Planned Parenthood's services every year; 54% of those patients are at or below the federal poverty level and 83% of patients are eligible for health care services at little or no cost. Health care services provided by Planned Parenthood are especially critical in rural communities, where people are more likely to live in poverty and have extreme barriers to accessing health care. Only 3% of Planned Parenthood patients can afford the full cost of their care and, for many, Planned Parenthood functions as their primary care provider.


Recently, the House of Representatives voted to strip Planned Parenthood of all federal funding by zeroing out the title X budget. This move was based solely on politics and ignored 40 years of effective public policy. Every dollar spent on family planning services saves taxpayers four dollars in Medicaid spending, this is an excellent return on investment that is matched by few other federal programs. Title X funding, contrary to the speeches give by many on the house floor, does not fund abortion services.  Title X funds cancer screenings, STI/HIV testing, medically accurate sex education and contraception. The majority of title X patients are low-income women who are uninsured but ineligible for medicaid, making title X one of their few options to access health care services.

Title X grants provide Planned Parenthood of Minnesota with approximately 20% of their funding and eliminating this funding will disproportionately hurt rural Minnesota communities. Rural clinics serve fewer patients and those patients have an even greater need for federal aid. The map to the left depicts the percentage of births per county to mothers under 18.  Teen pregnancy already accounts for a large percentage of births in rural communities. Low maternal age negatively impacts infant health. Infants born to mothers under the age of 20 have a mortality rate 1.5 times higher than infants born to older mothers.

All women should have the knowledge and resources to prevent unintended pregnancies. Contraception services at Title X centers (like Planned Parenthood) prevented 973,000 unintended pregnancies. Without Title X this would have resulted in 406,000 more abortions. Removing funding for Planned Parenthood, one of the few sources for medically accurate sex education and contraception, will result in more unintended pregnancies and will disproportionately impact women in rural communities.


Cross posted from Planned Parenthood Advocate

Family Planning in Greater Minnesota

Entrenched in attempts to balance the budget, the MN legislature will likely cut from all funding areas.  Last week, the MN senate passed cuts to child protection services and no one in the GOP was able to say why kids were in the first round for cuts or how this would effect them. Are these cuts viable or will they just cause more problems down the road? No one seems to know. We can bet that family planning services will likely receive the same blind ax by the GOP controlled legislature.

Family planning works and saves taxpayers money. Every dollar spent on family planning services saves Medicaid $4.02. Are there any other programs that have that kind of return on investment?

In greater Minnesota, access to family planning services is exceptionally challenging. 60% of Planned Parenthood patients live in greater Minnesota and 64% of those patients live in poverty. How will the GOP justify eliminating, in many cases, the only health care their constituents see in a year? Many clinics are located in communities that lack access to adequate primary care services. Will the MN GOP continue to fully fund ineffective 'crisis pregnancy centers' (that spread misinformation about birth control) but cut funding for family planning services that give medically accurate information? Reducing funding for family planning services will only increase the health care disparity between rural and urban women and cost Minnesota taxpayers more in the long run.

Obama administration: Birth control is too politically risky

When did birth control become such a political football? I'm not talking about abortion. I'm talking birth control pills; that medicine most women take at some point in their lives to prevent pregnancy. The political fight over birth control access ramped up significantly with the health care reform debate and is back as the committee appointed by members of congress now debate what should or should not be covered as preventative medicine.

If birth control is specified as a preventative, insurance companies will cover the total cost of the prescription (meaning no copay for women).  For many, a copay may not be a big issue. They may not see the importance or impact of providing free birth control to low income women. To those who are barely getting by, a $10-$50 expense per month is significant. A college student making 12K per year (my sister made less than this as a student) per year as a waitress and has a $50/month prescription has to spend 5% of her income. 5% of her income just for birth control. And people wonder why there are so many unplanned pregnancies.

Sadly, the Obama administration seems content to sit back and let the chips fall as they may.
The Nation

Douglas Laube, a veteran ob-gyn and chair of the board of Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health, who attended a fall meeting with White House staff to discuss the issue, described members of the administration as appreciative of the importance of birth control – but also worried. “Nobody in that room disagreed,” said Laube. “It all had to do with the potential political fallout.”

If the GOP, who fights access to family planning at every turn, REALLY cared about reducing the numbers of abortions, they would fight FOR expanded coverage of birth control. We need a leader to stand up and protect women's access to comprehensive health care. Prevention works. Prevention saves money. Prevention saves lives.