Abortion and the lack of Reproductive Health Care Services

Xochitl Calleja, Yvette Gomez, Crystal Trujillo February 12, 2014

Case Study #2 Problem definition (Causes & Interests)

Description of Social Problem Reproductive Health Services are not easily accessible by women and many hurdles and barriers still exist.

Retrieved from:www..thinkprogress.org

Direct & Primary Causes Direct Cause: Women cannot afford reproductive health care services ● ●

Out of 37 million in need of contraceptive care, 19.1 million women were in need of publicly funded contraceptive care Among the 19.1 million women in need of publicly funded contraceptive care: ○ 75% (14.3 million) were low-income adults and 25% (5 million) were younger than 20.

Primary Cause: Need of fulfilling the demand of reproductive health care services to vulnerable groups. ● ●

Affordable services & effective contraceptive methods Expansion of services in suburban areas

Indirect Contributing Factors Not enough education

Family Support

Lack of access to reproductive care services

Language barriers

Discrimination

Causal Theory -Inadvertent Cause The primary causes can be eliminated if there was more affordable reproductive services for women.

Retrieved from:www.web.mit.edu

Causal Theory -States need more funds to be invested in reproductive health.

-Fixers: Local reproductive health agencies.

-Available reproductive health resources.

-Political alliance between women

➔ (Availability includes affordable and convenience)

-Social Order (Religion)

Retrieved From: www. theguardian.com:

Primary Stakeholders The population primarily affected by the lack of access to reproductive health services is low income women. ●

One in 20 American women has an unintended pregnancy each year, and the burden falls even more heavily on some groups, women aged 18–24.

●

As a result of their high unintended pregnancy rates, women in these groups also have aboveaverage rates of unintended birth and abortion.

Secondary Stakeholders Taxpayers ●

Medical costs for births resulting from unintended pregnancy are about twice as likely to be publicly financed as are medical costs for intended births. As a result, unintended pregnancy likely represents a substantial cost to taxpayers, draining already tight federal and state budgets.

●

Lower-bound, mean and upper-bound estimates of the annual cost of unintended pregnancy are, respectively, $9.6 billion, $11.3 billion and $12.6 billion.

Action to address problem Secondary Stakeholders ● ● ●

Medicaid has expanded eligibility 31 states Income based eligibility

Summary Contraception use is key to reducing abortion rates ➔ Affordable & accessible reproductive services for all women ➔ No barriers such as low-income

References Facts on Publicly Funded Contraceptive Services in the United States. (n.d.). Facts on Publicly Funded Contraceptive Services in the United States. Retrieved February 8, 2014, from http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_contraceptive_serv.html

Finer, L. (2006). Disparities in rates of unintended pregnancy. Retrieved from http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/3809006. pdf Monea, E. (2011). Unintended pregnancy and taxpayer spending. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.library2.csumb. edu:2048/doi/10.1363/4308811/full?globalMessage=0 Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights . (2004). Retrieved from http://www2.ohchr. org/english/issues/development/docs/rights_reproductive_health.pdf