Vermont Business Magazine On the heels oftheTrump administration'sproposed 2019budget,whichwould slash support forreproductive healthprograms,the Population Institute has released itssixth annual report card on reproductive health and rights in the US. The results were alarming, showing declining overall reproductive health and rights and growing disparities between states after a year of Trump policies.For 2017,the overall USgrade fell from a "D" to a "D-." 18 states got a failing grade.Vermont received an "A."
These findings reflect sharp differences in how states handle family planning and reproductive health programs, as well as stepped up attacks on those programs by the Trump administration.
"The Trumpadministration and its allies in Congress have escalated the assault on reproductive health and rights,"saidRobert Walker, president of the Population Institute. "At the state level, weare seeing a deep and growing divide between states that seek to protectreproductive health and rightsand those that do not. States withgoodgradesare gradually improving, while states withpoorgradesareshowinglittle or no improvement."
Twenty-two statesreceived a B- or higher in 2017. Eleven states (California,Washington D.C.,Hawaii,Maine,Maryland,New Jersey,New Mexico,New York,Oregon,Vermont, andWashington) received an "A" in 2017, up from five the year before. The improved showing was largely attributable to state declines in teenage pregnancy rates.
But 27 states received a "D" or lower. 18 of those states received a failing grade ("F"), includingAlabama,Arkansas,Florida,Georgia,Idaho,Kansas,Louisiana,Mississippi,Missouri,Nebraska,North Dakota,Oklahoma,South Dakota,Tennessee,Texas,Utah,Virginia, andWisconsin.
"The United Statesis in danger of becoming, in effect, the Divided States of Reproductive Health and Rights," said Walker. "We cannot let that happen. All those who are concerned about the state of reproductive health in America should be making their voices heard."
The Trump budget proposal unveiled this weeksignals worse attacks to come.It would eliminate the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, invest in ineffective abstinence-only education programs, and block patients from seeing their preferred health care provider, Planned Parenthood.
Download the report cardhere. Special thanks goes to the Guttmacher Institute, whose research made it possible.
SOURCE WASHINGTON,Feb. 15, 2018/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --Population Institutewww.populationinstitute.org