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SUMMARY: For six years, the Colorado Family Planning Initiative has been providing free long-term birth control to teens and low-income women. The program has reduced unplanned teen pregnancies by 39 percent, and the abortion rate by 42 percent. The group has been lobbying for state funding, but Republican lawmakers have said no. Special correspondent Mary McCarthy reports.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): Next, a Colorado birth control program is losing its funding, despite a remarkable track record.
Special correspondent Mary MacCarthy has our report from Denver.
MARY MACCARTHY (NewsHour): Victoria Garcia was just 22, with big career plans, when she found out she was pregnant. The news, she said, was jolting.
VICTORIA GARCIA, Colorado: Motherhood wasn’t a stage in my life that I was ready for. I was in college. I was focused on school and getting my degree.
MARY MACCARTHY: Garcia said she had wanted to use a long-acting birth control method, but couldn’t afford it.
VICTORIA GARCIA: When you’re young and you’re in college and you’re barely making ends meet with food and rent and other menial costs, $500 or $550 for an IUD or an implant out of pocket is — it’s outrageous. It’s too much.
MARY MACCARTHY: Garcia had the baby, a son, Liam, and still managed to graduate from college. She credits her mother and husband for helping her. But there’s something else she says that had been critical for her success.
VICTORIA GARCIA: The day I got my IUD placed, the midwife handed this card to me and she said, you don’t have to come back until January 2022. This IUD has been life-changing for me. It really has.
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