Contraception As Economic Stimulus - It's Time to Stand Up for Women in Poverty

Despite the fact that some GOP members convinced President Obama that the contraception proposal didn't belong as an item in the economic stimulus package, Nancy Folbre, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, tells a different story in her NYTimes piece, Sex and the Stimulus:

I already knew that single mothers are one of the largest demographics below the poverty line, something that is again supported in this chart and the article saying: "Women in families with incomes that are more than 200 percent above the poverty line are much less likely than others to experience unplanned pregnancies, abortions or unplanned births."

And while I acknowledge a direct correlation between pregnancy and the economy - there are many who did not see such a relationship. Stimulating the economy through contraception appeared to me as a means to create economic growth by avoiding unintended pregnancies which, in turn, could result in more poverty. With the data from Folbre and others, it appears there are even more reasons to believe that the two are inextricably linked:

The case for public support for family planning goes beyond this particular calculation. In a now-classic article entitled “The Power of the Pill,” economists Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz document the ways that greater access to oral contraceptives increased women’s access to higher education and better-paying jobs. A more recent article by Martha Bailey, entitled “More Power to the Pill” details its positive effects on women’s paid employment.

Many private health insurance policies do not cover birth control, which now approaches $30-$50 a month for many oral contraceptives. New research in behavioral economics suggests that both cost and inconvenience of medical services are barriers to preventive treatment of diabetes and heart disease, as well as family planning.

Make sure to arm yourself with these important facts. It is the only way we can win the war against women who have already lost so much in the fiscal and mortgage crisis', we can't let them lose anymore options.