Family Planning And Poverty

Who are America’s poor children? How many children in America are poor? What are some of the hardships that face poor children in America? These are only a few questions that we can ask ourselves when considering children who live in poverty in America. Children face monumental hardships in our country because of poverty or the condition of not possessing the means to afford basic human needs. The economic crisis that we find ourselves in today threatens to cause a dramatic increase in the number of America’s poor children; however poverty in America has long been a crisis that has faced the children of our nation. This essay will investigate the previous asked questions and research

Women have been using birth control methods for over thousands of years. Today, we have various effective birth control methods available to woman. Such as the pill, patch, shot, or IUD. Birth control is a safe way to prevent pregnancy. You can purchase birth control at your doctor’s office, planned parenthood, a clinic, or a public health care provider. They will first discuss your medical history with you, then check your blood pressure and finally you will discuss which birth control method is right for you, and they will send you on your way with your prescription. Birth control can be purchased at your local drugstore and costs up to 50 dollars. In a lot of cases though, young girls and even older women cannot afford or access these types of birth control. There are concerns about being unemployed which results in no income coming in for birth control, lack of health insurance the woman may have and whether or not the woman can afford having a child, even more during an economic crisis. By having women’s birth control free it will not only decrease the chances of abortion, help women financially , help with women’s menstrual cycle, and also by lowering the teen pregnancy rate, and having them have the power to decide when they want to have children. Many people can argue that the government shouldn’t have to provide another free service and that the cost

In document three from The Case for Birth Control Sanger’s rhetoric changes, relying on facts, statistics, and knowledge based reasoning. Document three proves to be a much more reliable and comprehensive argument than document one. Sanger advocates small families for the working class as a means to eliminate poverty (due to large families), illegal abortions, child labor, and to protect the health of women “from overwork and the strain of too frequent child bearing” (6, 3,124) The argument shifts from a pseudo-socialist agenda to simply the right of a woman to control her own body and choose her own destiny.

There exist some evidence that poverty can result in low birth weight in newborn infants. On Prince Edward Island, low birth weights are currently the lowest as compared to the national average according to Statistics Canada. However, the link that exist between poverty and low birth weights leaves unanswered questions as to what can be done to reduce these low birth weights in newborn infants.

If a woman is not ready to have a family, and does not have access to birth control, it could affect the way the woman would possibly treat her future child. According to Planned Parenthood, “Improved access to birth control is directly linked to declines in maternal and infant mortality.” (Planned Parenthood). Also, if a woman is in a relationship with a man and they end up having an unwanted pregnancy, it is more than likely the relationship will end. Christine Clark states in her article, “Five (Unexpected) Ways Birth Control Can Improve Family Economic Prospects”, “Effective birth control allows couples to delay having children until they are truly ready, which makes them more likely to stay a couple and provide for their families, together.” (Clark). It is beneficial for a person to be able to access birth control because without it, families can fall

While the fear of unplanned pregnancies is nothing but a nightmare to elite wealthy women; it is the paralyzing reality to poor, uneducated women. This financial

Birth control should be able to be accessed by all because a leading cause of poverty is unplanned pregnancy. My unwanted pregnancies can result in neglection of the children. In the article “The way to beat poverty” By Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn It refers to a study done by Michael Meaney of Mcgill university, Michael Meaney studied the effects of mothers attention on rat pups. He noticed some rat mothers were more attentive of their young while others were not, “He found that rats that had been licked and cuddled as pups were far more self-confident, curious and intelligent. They were also better at mazes, healthier and longer-lived.” In order to eliminate error of biological intelligence Meaney switched the rat pups mother at birth and yet again the tests proved that pups who were attended to more as pups were more intelligent. This study can be attributed to the stress hormone called

During the mid and late 1960’s in United States, women, especially low-income women, had more children than they preferred. Research attributed this rise to the lack of access to contraceptives especially in lower income families leading to the difference in the economic affordability of women to have more children than desired. Evidence also showed unintended pregnancies or closely spaced pregnancies to pose adverse maternal and child health outcomes such as delayed prenatal care, premature births, and unfavorable mental and physical health effects on children. Additionally, unintended pregnancies, especially among teenagers, led to more poverty, increased dependence on publically funded services, incomplete education, and decreased ability

However, it is incorrect to assume that cutting funding to programs like Medicaid and Planned Parenthood are the way to save money. In fact, by providing care which included birth control, family planning clinics alone “helped prevent 2.2 million unplanned pregnancies in 2010” (Culp-Ressler). This study shows that it is more cost effective to supply birth control freely than it is to financially aid women in properly caring for unanticipated children. For example, in 2011, unplanned pregnancies nationwide totaled an average of $11 billion in costs for American taxpayers. However, reducing unintentional pregnancies averages to a total of $5.6 billion in savings (“Nation Pays Steep”). Therefore, a viable solution to attain these kinds of savings is it to prevent these accidental pregnancies in the first place which free birth control can do. Furthermore, cutting funding to Medicaid and family planning services is ineffective and additionally reduces the chances of a woman to attain birth control.

In the mid twentieth century, Margaret Sanger started a movement to make birth control more accessible so women could control the size of their families. Birth control is critical for women’s rights, they can't have their place in society if they are at having babies constantly. Smaller families benefit the kids because if the parents have only a few children, they can afford to provide those children with the things they need to succeed in life. Parents with large families would not have the capacity to give their kids those luxuries.

Everyone has heard the saying, “history repeats itself”. We’ve seen it time and time again from multiple Stock Market crashes, reasons for starting wars, to even patterns in fashion and music. The debates contraception poses proves to be no exception. While opinions differ from person to person based on their religious beliefs, political standing, and physical health condition, the argument always seems to be whether or not contraception should be easily accessible. This topic has been discussed since the early 1900’s, and is showing no signs of being solved anytime soon. Currently, the argument surrounding birth control is whether or not the government should be providing it at little to no cost for those who cannot afford it. It is hard

Within this course, there were issues or information from the course that most surprised, intrigued, or elicited emotion (positive or negative) in me. There were many topics that I already knew about but needed to refresh my memory and many that were new information to me.

1. Obviously, like any other thing in the world, the contraceptive methods are mostly affected by the financial ability of people. The social determinants of health discussed in chapter one also points out to the importance of financial ability. For example, socioeconomic status, educational attainment, literacy, employment status, working conditions, housing, transportation, social support networks, and access to health care services that are all listed as significant social factors of health are directly affected by the income of people. Therefore, it is not surprising to see that access to contraception in developed countries such as northern America and European countries involves more variety and more choices compared to less developed

Female sterilization has been a popular method of contraception since the 1970’s. Despite the relatively high utilization of sterilization in the United States, there is considerable evidence that there is an unmet demand for the procedure among some segments of the United States population. In particular, low-income women may face significant system-level barriers to obtaining a desired sterilization procedure. (1822)

With the population on the rise and the economy struggling to survive, we need to start looking for alternatives for population control that will not only save money, but with time show to be profitable. According to the National Institute on Aging, thanks to advances in medicine, the life expectancy of Americans 65 and older has nearly doubled during the 20th century and is expected to double again within the next 25 years. Unplanned pregnancies are also another issue affecting our population that is causing burdens on the healthcare system. Unplanned pregnancies not only a burden the healthcare system, but also on the parents of the unborn. In many instances the expecting parents are mere children themselves and in other situations they are living in the poverty level and cannot afford to support the child. In those instances the government has to take on the burden of bringing up the children. We will discuss a plan on how fight the war on poverty and turn these unwanted pregnancy into a financial blessing. Along with a better ways to handle the costs of taking care of the elderly.