Access to effective contraception is a fundamental element in reducing rates of unwanted pregnancy. However, even as world population zooms beyond the 6 billion mark, society seems to be erecting barriers that make contraception harder to obtain. (For many of us, the situation seems like a bad episode of deja vu -- it certainly seems like we've been through all this before.)
How real are these barriers? How much impact do they have in the lives of real women? What is the situation here in East Tennessee? What should we be doing to help ensure that the promise of contraception technology is not lost to society due to barriers that society creates?
TFC's program will explore some of these barriers, particularly how they are being experienced here in East Tennessee. We will ask our panelists to share their perspectives on these topics, based on their professional experience and study.
Some of the barriers are financial. Birth control pills are costly --nearly $400 per year at the full retail price. For many women, insurance helps pay these costs, but we've all heard news stories about health insurance plans that cover the cost of Viagra but will not help women pay for prescription contraceptives. Meanwhile, government assistance for family planning reaches fewer low-income women due to continued erosion in funding for family planning programs - in constant dollars, fiscal 1998 funding for Title X family planning programs was less than 40% of what it had been in fiscal 1980.
Ignorance is another barrier that keeps some women from using contraceptive methods that would be effective for them. Emergency contraception -- administering large doses of birth control pills within 72 hours after unprotected sexual intercourse -- offers great promise in reducing the rate of unwanted pregnancy, but many women who might benefit from it don't know that it is available. By understating the effectiveness of artificial contraception methods, public education materials from some sources (including materials that have been used in school sex education programs) appear to encourage some women to rationalize that the benefits of contraception aren't worth the cost and hassle.
Moral opposition erects other barriers. While national statistics indicate that Roman Catholic women widely disregard church teachings against artificial contraception, anti-choice groups are now working to arouse new opposition to IUDs and birth control pills by labeling them "abortifacients" (because they can prevent the implantation of a fertilized egg). Now that public health authorities are encouraging the use of emergency contraception and have allowed the sale of contraceptives expressly for use in emergency contraception, news headlines report that some pharmacists -- and the Wal-Mart Corporation -- are refusing to fill emergency contraception prescriptions for moral reasons. Some doctors and hospital emergency rooms -- particularly in Catholic hospitals -- do not prescribe emergency contraception, even for rape victims. And programs to give adolescents access to contraceptive information and contraceptive materials (such as free condoms) continue to meet with opposition from people who fear that access to contraception will encourage adolescent sex.
Even the development of new contraception technology is lagging. One problem is that pharmaceutical companies are not investing in contraceptive research because they fear product liability lawsuits and because they are making acceptable profit margins from their current contraceptive products.
Join us on November 18th for a discussion of these issues.
Last Modified January 1, 2000.