More than 19 million women have poor birth control access
Title X funding has flatlined for nine years straight
Areas without access to the full range of contraceptive care have long challenged women and others who wanted to control their fertility. These locations are known as contraceptive deserts, and more than 19 million women live in them right now.
Several organizations, including Power to Decide, monitor the growth and exacerbation of this problem. Rachel Fey, vice president of policy and strategic partnerships with the group, said that women who are poor depend on publicly funded clinics to get birth control. Transportation, time and childcare expenses are all barriers for those who seek birth control.
When a clinic doesn’t get support, it can’t offer the full range of services or have to cut its hours. Some women may have to drive 30 minutes or more just for care.
“We're talking about people who are struggling to make ends meet,” Fey said. “So imagine that your choice is either to put the gas in the car and fill up to go to work on Monday or to go to the appointment you have.”
By definition, a clinic that offers full contraceptive care would offer IUDs, the pill and any other available form of birth control.
State and federal legislators have several paths they can take to help alleviate this issue. Allowing pharmacists to prescribe birth control is one thing. The Connecticut legislature recently sought to do that. Other state proposals require insurance companies to pay for a year’s worth of contraception that is distributed at one time. All of those things help with interruptions in service. But all is for naught without additional funding for family planning.
“You just are not going to have more clinics on the ground with longer hours and more providers to start addressing the contraceptive deserts that we have right now,” Fey said.
Title X was established in 1970 to provide affordable birth control and reproductive health care to people with low incomes, who couldn’t otherwise afford these services on their own. It used to be a bipartisan program. President Richard Nixon signed it into law. But in the last decade, conservative lawmakers have tried to resist raising funds for it. Title 10 doesn’t cover abortion care.
Inside the beltway, it’s become a controversial topic. So raising funds has been hard. It has been flat-funded for nine years in a row. That means it hasn’t received any cuts, but because of inflation, the money doesn’t cover as many costs.
“That squeezed the ability of clinics to serve people and exacerbates the issue of contraceptive deserts,” Fey said.
Fey said it would also be a huge step if contraceptives could be sold over the counter.
“We believe in everyone having the power to decide if, when and under what circumstances to get pregnant and have a child,” Fey said. “You cannot do that if you don't have reasonable access to contraception.”