Over the past six years, Colorado has proved that giving teens free IUDs can, miraculously, dramatically reduce teen pregnancy. Since 2009, the state has provided more than 300,000 free long-action reversible contraceptives — like IUDS and under-the-skin implants — at 68 family-planning clinics across the state. In the first four years of the program, teen pregnancy rates in the state dropped by 40 percent; since 2009, the teen abortion rate has declined by 42 percent.
The six-year initiative to provide LARCs to low-income women was made possible with a $23.5 million grant from the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation — which ran out this June. Earlier this spring, Colorado’s Republican-controlled Senate rejected a bill that would have allocated $5 million to the program, arguing that it could promote promiscuity. Fortunately, KUNC reports that, with the help of a dozen health and community foundations, the program will be funded for another year — meaning that, for the next 12 months at least, Colorado will remain a pretty good place to be a teen with a uterus.