Giving Compass' Take:

• Emily M. Johnston and Adele Shartzer report that women want access to effective birth control in order to improve their lives. 

• How can funders effectively expand access to birth control? What reproductive needs are more pressing in your community? 

• Find out what reproductive rights look like in your state. 

Access to birth control is critical to women’s reproductive health, and more than 8 in 10 women say birth control has a positive effect on women’s lives. Birth control prevents unplanned pregnancies and unplanned births and has broad health, social, and economic benefits for women and their families.

When asked what characteristics are important when they consider what birth control method to use, more than 83 percent of sexually active birth control users reported that it is extremely important that their birth control method be very effective at preventing pregnancy.

The administration further cut funding for the Teenage Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) Program and proposed reallocating Title X family planning funding to new fertility awareness programs for adolescents, a shift away from evidence-based practices.

Reduced funding for the program would jeopardize access for the more than 6 million women who used Title X or other publicly funded clinics in 2015. These clinics provide women free or low-cost access to effective, and often costly, birth control methods, such as intrauterine devices (IUDs), implants, and the shot, pill, ring, and patch. Without no-cost coverage or public funding, women may not be able to afford effective birth control methods.

Read the full article on birth control by Emily M. Johnston and Adele Shartzer at Urban Institute.