Via
TGW, the
Guttmacher Institute has been tracking the rate of unintended pregnancies in the states and the results are very revealing.
According to the latest figures, nearly half of the 6 million pregnancies that occur each year among American women are unintended. Of those, 1.4 million result in births, and 1.3 million result in abortion. Between 1981 and 1994, the latest year for which data are available, the rate of unintended pregnancy in the US declined, from 54.2 per thousand women of child-bearing age to 44.7.
[...]
Leading the nation in addressing unplanned pregnancies is California, which has the most effective laws and policies promoting the use of contraception, resulting in a nearly 40 percent decline in teen pregnancy, the study found.
Unlike other states, there is at least one family planning clinic in every county in California, the study found. Altogether, there are 821 public clinics that serve more than 1 million women in the state. In 2001, California spent $124 per woman in need of contraceptive services compared with the national rate of $79 per woman.
Nebraska ranked the lowest in the survey, mainly because of lack of access to family planning and lack of public funding, researchers found. Only a quarter of counties in Nebraska have one or more family planning clinic and they serve about a third of women and teenagers in need of contraceptive services, according to the study.
Egalia has been putting up more than her usual amount of great stuff over on
TN Guerilla Women this week. She's also covered the
War on Women,
government sponsored homophobia and much, much more.
There's so much going on this week, I really
can't keep up with it all.
Schwarzenegger's in trouble,
Rick Santorum's ethics problems continue to mount, and Bush was lying about that 45-day review thing -- the Dubai Ports
is actually closing this week according to Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt. Whoops. Silly, silly people. Bush, Inc. isn't going to let the pesky US Congress or the powerless American people get in the way of his wheelin' and dealin'!
A number of people have been covering the ongoing and various stories involving the creeping (or is it creepy?) religious fanaticism here in the US (and how it is often so similar to Islamic fundamentalism), including this week's
intrusions into our bedrooms and
blurring line between church and state -- and today
smijer was able to
make that story local for us.
I'm sure there are a lot of
Sarah Vowell fans out there. She's been filling in a bit at the NYTimes recently (she
weighed in thusly this week), and she made a very charming appearance on Jon Stewart the other day --
here's the clip if you missed the show.
And, well... there are a gigillion other things going on, but that's all the links I've got for now. Give me some tips in the comments if there is some place I should head to next...
