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hard rock,

Contraceptives are used for more than birth control. It is also used for a host of health reasons reducing medical care costs.

Birth control saves lives. It also saves us money, a lot of money. Even an uneventful pregnancy costs more. Every dollar our society spends on preventing unintended pregnancies produces a savings of between $2 and $6. The savings come from averting health care, child care and other costs of unplanned pregnancies. That's one of the safest and most profitable investments anywhere, a rate of return of 100% to 500%. The fewer the unintended pregnancies, the fewer the abortions.

When Texas cut $73 million for state family planning services, the increase in unplanned pregnancies ended up costing $230 million in additional Medicaid burdens. The other results were more unintended pregnancies and more abortions.

Brookings projects spending just $235 million to expand access to Medicaid family planning services would save $1.32 billion.

I assume you must know or have at least guessed that contraceptives used to prevent pregnancy or to treat other health issues has got to be cheaper than the cost of pregnancies or untreated health issues that become serious or dangerous to a woman's life. Plus we all end up bearing those extra costs. Saving all of us a whole lot of money should please a fiscal conservative and preventing unmarried mothers and abortions should please a religious/moral conservative. Look like a win-win to me.

If you still think it's "asinine", I'd sure like to know why.

From: Lessons learned from an extraordinary election

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