AUGUSTA, Maine - The rate of planned pregnancies in Maine has remained consistent in recent years. According to the latest figures in 2010, it was 61 percent. The Maine Center for Disease Control wants to increase that number to 67 percent by 2020.
This legislative session, lawmakers will consider a bill that health advocates say would help the state reach that goal.
The bill would expand access to reproductive health care - including so-called Long-Acting Reversible Contraceptive methods, like implants and IUDs, which, once shunned by the medical community, are now touted as the most effective birth control methods.
Democratic Rep. Joyce McCreight says her bill to expand access to reproductive health care actually addresses a much larger issue. "I got to it through the lens of economic security."
Right now, Maine provides reproductive health coverage to pregnant women who are below 209 percent of the federal poverty level. McCreight says her bill would expand that coverage to non-pregnant women. "If people have a choice about their reproductive health care, they can have better economic security because they can plan pregnancies," she says.
Nicole Clegg of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England says reproductive health care and economic security go hand in hand. "There's a lot of research that points to, with those unintended pregnancies, there's an increased risk of staying low-income, needing public assistance, not being able to pursue the dreams you want to pursue."
The state of Maine spends about $12 million a year to provide care during pregnancy and labor to low-income Mainers. This bill is estimated to save the state $3 million a year by preventing unintended pregnancies.
A similar bill last year drew bipartisan support, but Gov. Paul LePage vetoed it, saying qualifying women could also get coverage by purchasing subsidized insurance on the Affordable Care Act's online Marketplace.
But Andrew MacLean of the Maine Medical Association says the state should cover reasonable health care services. "In this case, the health care return on investment is very clear - the avoided cost of unintended pregnancy."
And increasingly, the top method to prevent unintended pregnancies are LARCs - Long Acting Reversible Contraceptives, like implants and intrauterine devices, known as IUDs.
"What we like to call forgettable methods. You put them in and forget about them for three, to five, to 12 years," Dr. Donna Burkett.
Burkett is medical director of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England. She says one of the reasons LARCs are so effective is they take human characteristics out of the picture - unlike the birth control pill that users have to remember to take at the same time every day.
In 2011, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommended LARCs as the best tool to prevent unintended pregnancies. Last year, the American Academy of Pediatrics made the same recommendation for adolescents.
It's a major shift from LARCs reputation in the 70's, says Dr. Burkett. That's when an IUD called the Dalkon Shield was popular.
"It, unfortunately, had a property that led to an increase in infections that went up into a woman's tubes and ovaries, causing infertility," Burkett says.
Meghan Giles is a senior at the University of Southern Maine. Giles says she started using the birth control pill in high school, but they caused problems. "It gave me cramps. I was super moody - more than usual, which wasn't appreciated. And it was just so - my periods weren't regular, so they'd come for three weeks at a time, or never, and then I was terrified."
Giles eventually switched to an IUD, and she says it's been a completely different experience. "I'm just an anxious person to begin with, so the IUD for me was such an amazing thing to not have to worry as much as you did with the pill."
One downside to IUDs is that the cost for several years worth of contraception is all upfront, and can run up to $1,000. Nicole Clegg of Planned Parenthood says Rep. McCreight's bill would give women in financial need the option to use this method of birth control.
Gov. LePage's spokesperson declined to comment on the pending bill.
