Nearly one million low-income women in California obtained contraceptives under the state’s Family PACT program in 2002, thereby avoiding 205,000 unintended pregnancies, 94,000 unwanted births and 79,000 abortions, according to "Estimates of Pregnancies Averted Through California’s Family Planning Waiver Program in 2002," by Diana Greene Foster et al., published in the September 2006 issue of Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health. The number of women served annually through Family PACT doubled during the program’s first five years.

Anyone whose income does not exceed 200% of the federal poverty level and who has no other public or private source of reproductive health care coverage is eligible for Family PACT services. Before enrolling in Family PACT, 27% of the women served were not using any method of contraception at all, while 38% were using condoms and only 32% were using hormonal methods or IUDs. The program’s provision of contraceptives to women who would not otherwise use any method accounts for the bulk of its impact on unintended pregnancy. Family PACT also enables some women to switch from methods with relatively high failure rates to more effective ones.

To make it as easy as possible to enroll and participate in Family PACT, the service network includes both private- and public-sector providers, and potential clients can apply for enrollment at each clinical site. Family PACT provides all contraceptive methods approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, as well as male and female sterilization, screening and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, HIV testing, and limited cancer screening and infertility services.

At a time when the Deficit Reduction Act, signed into law in February, gives states the flexibility to cut back on Medicaid-funded family planning programs, the California Family PACT program offers other states a model for expanding rather than reducing services, thus helping more low-income women avoid unintended pregnancy. In addition, other studies have shown that making subsidized contraceptive services available to low-income women generates significant savings at the federal, state and local levels.

Also in this issue:

"Understanding Sex Partner Selection from the Perspective of Inner-City Black Adolescents," by Katherine Andrinopoulos et al. ;

"Provision of Contraceptive and Related Services by Publicly Funded Family Planning Clinics, 2003," by Laura Duberstein Lindberg et al. ;

"Promoting Female Condom Use to Heterosexual Couples: Findings from a Randomized Clinical Trial," by Susan S. Witte et al. ;

"Do U.S. Family Planning Clinics Encourage Parent-Child Communication? Findings from an Exploratory Survey," by Rachel K. Jones; and

"Unprotected Sex Among Youth Living with HIV Before and After the Advent of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy," by Eric Rice et al.