KEY PROGRAMS

Adding It Up: Sexual and Reproductive Health Services and Financing

Increased and sustained investment in sexual and reproductive health services – in the United States and in developing countries – promises tremendous benefits to women, families and societies. In addition to improving overall health, sexual and reproductive health services contribute to economic growth, societal and gender equity, and democratic governance.

The Guttmacher Institute seeks to provide policymakers with a fuller account of these broad benefits and with more complete information about the direct economic costs and benefits associated with provision of such services. In addition, we examine the scope and reach of services and recommend ways to overcome barriers to introducing new services, such as emergency contraception or the HPV vaccine.

Sexual and Reproductive Health Services and Financing resources at a glance

Click on the map to see our work by region

Highlights

The national family planning program provides contraception and basic, preventive health care to millions of disadvantaged U.S. women. According to a Guttmacher report published in February 2009, Next Steps for America’s Family Planning Program: Leveraging the Potential of Medicaid and Title X in an Evolving Health Care System, publicly funded family planning helps prevent 1.94 million unintended pregnancies each year, thereby averting 860,000 unintended births and 810,000 abortions.

In addition to helping women avoid the pregnancies they do not want and plan the pregnancies they do, publicly funded family planning services are highly cost-effective. More than nine in 10 women receiving them would be eligible for Medicaid-funded prenatal, delivery and postpartum care services if they became pregnant. Avoiding the significant costs associated with these unintended births saves taxpayers $4 for every $1 invested in family planning.

Investing in sexual and reproductive
health pays off