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Saturday, December 20th, 2014

The Devastating Consequences Of Chipping Away At Family Planning Programs

Author:     Tara Culp-Ressler
Source:     Think Progress
Publication Date:     December 18, 2014 at 12:02 pm
 Link: The Devastating Consequences Of Chipping Away At Family Planning Programs
Stephan:   We are beginning to see the social consequences resulting from making social policies on the basis of religion instead of facts, and it is not a pretty picture. Yet in the states where women's rights are being tossed away, it is happening because the people in that state either didn't vote, or voted for the Theocratic Right.
Credit: Shutterstock

Credit: Shutterstock

The federally funded family planning clinics that are supposed to offer a safety net for low-income Americans are in crisis.

The clinics in the Title X network provide confidential reproductive health services on a sliding pay scale, including STD screening, Pap smears, and birth control consultations. Most of the patients who rely on these health centers are low-income and uninsured and would struggle to get that care elsewhere. Others may have private insurance, but prefer the confidentiality of the family planning network.

Clare Coleman, the president and CEO of the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, which represents Title X providers, is worried about being able to reach the Americans who need those services the most.

 “We’re now in the fifth year where the network hasn’t seen any increase in service dollars — there’s no new money to provide health services,” Coleman told ThinkProgress. “So now you’ve got a system that’s dropped a significant number of patients.”

According to the federal government’s latest report on the Title X network, which was released […]

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