Thursday, September 24, 2009

The Recession and its Impact on Reproductive Health

No doubt you've heard through the anecdotes of friends and family that times are tough. Or perhaps you have experienced that toughness yourselves. Of course, here we're all particularly concerned about how harder economic times effects women and their access to reproductive health.

Now a study released by the Guttmacher Institute sheds some concrete data-driven light on these concerns. The study found that the recession had an impact on the reproductive choices of women with nearly 1/2 of those surveyed saying that they intended to delay pregnancy until the economy improves.

The study also points out that this in itself causes additional problems because when women want to delay pregnancy, they turn to contraception, which is an expense in and of itself. Lack of access to affordable reproductive health options increasingly puts women in untenable situations. This further highlights the centrality of organizations, such as Planned Parenthood, that can provide reproductive health services at or below cost.

The above link takes you to a summary, but the published study itself is worth a read and provides lots of valuable data that many of you might find interesting. And if you feel comfortable, please share your story. How has your life or the life of a friend been effected by the recession with regards to reproductive health? If we all listen and do a little, we can do a lot.

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