Between 2009 and 2013, the teen pregnancy rate in Colorado has dropped 40 percent. And—golly gee willikers!—the state is crediting the Colorado Family Planning Initiative, which provides cheap-to-free IUDs and implants to low-income women.
Vox points to a statement from Governor John Hickenlooper, announcing the stats. The program (funded for five years by an anonymous donor, according to the Denver Post) has doled out 30,000 implants and IUDs across the state, and officials attribute three-quarters of the drop to teens “served by these agencies.” Couple more stats: Colorado WIC cases dropped 23 percent between 2008 and 2013; teen abortions fell 35 percent between 2009 and 2012 in the counties where the program operates.
Blah blah blah correlation does not equal causation blah blah blah, and America’s teen birth rate has been dropping overall. But as Vox points out, Colorado zipped from 29th to 19th in the lowest-teen-births stakes between 2009 and 2013.
“This initiative has saved Colorado millions of dollars,” said the governor. “More importantly, it has helped thousands of young Colorado women continue their education, pursue their professional goals and postpone pregnancy until they are ready to start a family.” Let’s pause to appreciate the amazing banner sitting above these remarks:
So imagine all this coming from your mountaineering high-school vice principal.
Photo via Nils Z/Shutterstock.