Family Planning as a Cost-Saving Preventive Health Service

Family Planning as a Cost-Saving Preventive Health Service | Health Policy and Reform: Nearly half the pregnancies that occur each year in the United States are unintended, according to the Guttmacher Institute. In 2001, an estimated 3.1 million pregnancies were reportedly unwanted or mistimed, and by 45 years of age, nearly half of American women will have had an unintended pregnancy. Such pregnancies have far-reaching consequences for women, children, and families — ramifications that Brown and Eisenberg have enumerated: “With an unwanted pregnancy especially, the mother is more likely to seek prenatal care after the first trimester or not to obtain care. She is more likely to expose the fetus to harmful substances by smoking tobacco and drinking alcohol. The child of an unwanted conception is at greater risk of weighing less than 2,500 grams at birth, of dying in its first year of life, of being abused, and of not receiving sufficient resources for healthy development. The mother may be at greater risk of physical abuse herself, and her relationship with her partner is at greater risk of dissolution. Both mother and father may suffer economic hardship and fail to achieve their educational and career goals. The health and social risks associated with a mistimed conception are similar to those associated with an unwanted conception, although they are not as great."