Colorado’s journey to national leadership in family planning and its success in improving health outcomes while lowering state costs are documented in the January 2017 Taking the Unintended Out of Pregnancy: Colorado’s Success with Long-Acting Reversible Contraception report.
The Colorado Family Planning Initiative (CFPI) drove a 50 percent reduction in teen births and abortions, avoided nearly $70 million in public assistance costs, and empowered thousands of young women to make their own choices on when or whether to start a family.
A private donor’s investment in the state health department’s family planning program allowed us to train health care providers, support family planning clinics, and remove the financial barriers to women choosing the safest, most effective form of contraception.
Report highlights
The CFPI has empowered thousands of Colorado women to choose when and whether to start a family. Thanks in large part to the Colorado Family Planning Initiative:
- The teen birth rate was nearly cut in half.
- The teen abortion rate was nearly cut in half.
- Births to women without a high school education fell 38 percent.
- Second and higher-order births to teens were cut by 57 percent.
- The birth rate among young women ages 20-24 was cut by 20 percent.
- The average age of first birth increased by 1.2 years among all women.
- Rapid repeat births declined by 12 percent among all women.
- Costs avoided: $66.1-$69.6 million.