Women's health, family planning

Core Business: Prevention

Program: Adolescent and Adult Health Promotion

Sub-Program: Family Planning

W O M E N 'S H E A L T H

FAMILY PLANNING

What is the purpose of the program? To improve the health of women and infants by enabling families to plan and space pregnancies and prevent unintended pregnancy.

What does the program do? The Georgia Family Planning Program (GFPP) provides comprehensive reproductive health services each year to over 140,000 women of childbearing age and their partners. Services include physical exams; birth control counseling and supplies; abstinence skills training; immunizations; and screening for cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. The GFPP also provides screening, counseling and referral for risk factors affecting women's health such as substance abuse, poor nutrition, cigarette smoking and exposure to violence.

Why is the program important? For every dollar spent on family planning services, Georgia saves $4.40 on medical care, welfare and nutritional programs for babies up to age two. Over two years, the savings could equal $16 million. Family planning programs increase the percentage of women receiving early prenatal care and reduce the risk of low birth weight, which reduces expensive medical costs and lifelong disabilities for babies. Unintended pregnancies often have adverse health, social, or economic consequences for both women and children. These consequences may include lower levels of educational and job attainment, as well as greater risk for families to live in poverty. Eighty-seven percent of the individuals served are working poor or unemployed (at or below 150% of the Federal Poverty Level), and typically have no health insurance. Family planning programs provide many of these women with their only source of primary and reproductive health care.

How many people are helped by the program? GFPP provides services to women in all 159 Georgia counties through a network of county public health clinics, hospitals clinics, community health centers and other agencies.

Who do we serve? 1. Family planning clinics often serve as an entry point to the health care system and are a principal source of health care for many people who are uninsured and who do not qualify for Medicaid. 2. The Title X Program serves a racially and ethnically diverse clientele. 3. Most clients are age 20 or older, with the majority in their early 20s. 4. While the Program primarily serves low- to moderate-income women, recent efforts to encourage male involvement in family planning are reflected in steadily increasing numbers of male clients.

Legislative Authority U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Project Grant for Family Planning Services, OCGA 49-7-03. Federal and state family planning funds are not used to pay for abortions.

Contact: Lyndolyn Campbell (404) 657-3138 E-mail: lacampbell@dhr.state.ga.us http://health.state.ga.us/programs/familyplanning/

Georgia Department of Community Health Division of Public Health Office of Maternal and Child Health

Revised January 2010