This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
For almost 40 years Planned Parenthood Association of Utah has been the steward of the National Family Planning Program known as Title X. This week the program has been placed in jeopardy by the United States Congress. In Washington, the House leadership has proposed eliminating the funding as a means of deficit reduction.
For the women, men and families who depend on these critical health care services it is an extremely dangerous proposal. Tens of thousands of Utahns rely on the Title X program, which is administered through Planned Parenthood Association of Utah, to manage their reproductive health care. In this economy, thousands of Utah residents are only one pregnancy away from financial disaster.
Title X allows reproductive health care centers to provide a wide variety of preventive health care services: birth control, sexually transmitted infection screening tests and appropriate treatment, breast, cervical and testicular cancer screenings, HIV screenings, vasectomy and treatment for abnormal pap results that could lead to cancer.
As a means of deficit reduction the elimination of Title X is counterproductive. Each dollar spent on family planning services saves almost $4 in Medicaid and other social services costs. At a time when more and more families are feeling economic difficulties and the need for affordable, accessible health care is at an all-time high, eliminating the Title X Family Planning Program does not make sense for us as a state or a nation.
Eliminating valuable programs such as Title X is out of step with what mainstream American and Utah voters want. Recent polling indicates that many would like to see family planning programs remain in place. In November, 71 percent of voters nationwide disagreed with cutting federal funding for preventive family planning services and 60 percent of those who voted Republican agreed. Here in Utah, a recent Dan Jones survey indicated that 74 percent of voters identified Planned Parenthood Association of Utah with contraception and pregnancy prevention and 60 percent of those polled indicated that they felt that Planned Parenthood Association of Utah played an important role in providing health care to thousands of families.
One in five women has received care at a Planned Parenthood health care facility somewhere in this country. Here in Utah, PPAU provides reproductive health care to nearly 51,000 men and women who make over 158,000 visits to our nine heath centers and 12 contract locations each year. The people who utilize our valuable preventive health care services are in desperate need of affordable, often life-saving health care.
In Utah, 97 percent of our clients we serve are uninsured and almost 85 percent of the services they were given were provided with Title X funding.
Title X family planning services are not just about birth control and vasectomies; they are about ensuring that men and women can protect their fertility. PPAU also provided sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment for 28,000 men and women, and provided 9,000 HIV tests. PPAU continues to provide the majority of HIV and sexually transmitted infection testing in Utah.
Regardless of your personal views and moral convictions on who should be having sexual relations, we can all agree that the safety of our friends, family and neighbors should remain a priority for all of us.
The future fertility of all Utahns is of the utmost importance if we are to continue to prosper as a state. We must ensure that we are all working together to preserve Title X funding so that we can help stop the spread of sexually transmitted infections and ensure that unintended pregnancies are rare.
PPAU has accepted the responsibility to provide these vital services for the last 40 years and we are honored and proud to have met that need here in Utah.
Karrie Galloway is the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Association of Utah.