Preventing unwanted spending

We all know that President Bush and his party in general favor abstinence only education to prevent unwanted pregnancy. They love it so much, in fact, they are willing to pump more and more money into a program that lacks proof of success and is laden with mistruths.

In January 2003, Wisconsin passed legislation giving low income women access to reproductive health care and contraception. The result? The state has saved 3.3 million dollars by reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies:

State officials, using projections based on 2000 figures, said 1,278 pregnancies were averted in the last quarter of 2003 because women in the program were provided with contraceptives; none of the averted pregnancies were due to abortions, said Jason Helgerson, executive assistant at the state Department of Health and Family Services.

If those children had been born, it would have cost Medicaid $7,132 to deliver and care for each of those newborns, for a total of $9.1 million.

Instead, the program spent $5.8 million to provide family planning care to those women, saving $3.3 million.

Best way to prevent abortions? Prevent unwanted pregnancies of course. This study, albeit preliminary, also shows what kind of savings these programs can have as well.