ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : The Value of Family Planning

In Orange County, the governor’s family-planning budget cuts last summer were blamed by Planned Parenthood for increased pregnancies. Local officials for the group said last week that there were more unintended pregnancies because women had less access to birth-control information at family-planning clinics. Planned Parenthood also believes that abortions have increased as a result of the cutbacks.

If true, this is ironic, especially considering that Gov. George Deukmejian’s philosophical objection to spending family-planning money is that he doesn’t want state funds used to counsel women to have abortions. Family-planning clinics do counsel indigent or uninsured women as to their options when they are pregnant, but state funds are not used for abortions. The women decide for themselves what they want to do.

The clinics provide birth-control devices and information, but because of funding cuts of 73% in Orange County alone, Planned Parenthood said that there will be continued delays in pregnancy counseling and medical treatment.

As Deukmejian and the Assembly this week consider restoration of the bulk of funding to these clinics, the information on unintended pregnancies from Planned Parenthood of Orange County should be very much on their minds. That information is just one indication of the value of family-planning education and counseling.