King County is facing a major budget crisis.  The budget currently being deliberated by the King County Council eliminates 5 family planning clinics (county clinics in Renton, White Center, Columbia City, Northgate, and Bothell), and cuts family planning and STD services for teens in juvenile detention.  That means 5 out of 9 public health family planning clinics will be closed.  The women and teens served by these clinics are among the most at-risk in the county: the poor, working poor, recent immigrants, and incarcerated teens.  Furthermore, for thousands of these women and teens, the county clinics are their only source of family planning and STD care.

Not only does the funding provide critical care for women and teens who otherwise would have no means to access it, it makes good financial sense.

For every $1 of public funding spent on family planning, $4 of public funding are saved.  Access to birth control and STD services is the single most effective way to reduce unintended pregnancies, to reduce state-supported births and abortions, and to help prevent the spread of STDs.  Cutting funding for family planning care and STD treatment now will only postpone much greater costs in terms of unintended pregnancies and disease treatment—costs that will ultimately be paid by taxpayers. 

Budget cuts are inevitable in the current economy, but they should not come at the expense of some of society’s most vulnerable: poor women and their families.  This is a disproportionate hardship for already-marginalized communities to bear.

Public funding for family planning services must be preserved.   The Council’s Budget Committee is holding one more public hearing on the 2009 budget on Monday, November 10.  The deadline for the full Council to vote on the budget is Monday, November 24.