September 18, 2003

Contact: Peggy Hamill, State Director
Matt Sande, Director of Legislative Affairs
(262) 796-1111, (262) 352-0890 or info@prolifewisconsin.org

Pro-Life Wisconsin Urges Removal of Minor Children from
Family Planning Demonstration Project

Pro-Life Wisconsin in a legislative memo today strongly urges Wisconsin state legislators to support Assembly Bill 383 and Senate Bill 186, companion legislation that would eliminate minor girls’ access to the Medicaid Family Planning Demonstration Project. The Project currently provides free, taxpayer-funded birth control to 15, 16 and 17-year-old girls without their parents’ knowledge or consent.

According to the memo issued by Matt Sande, Pro-Life Wisconsin’s director of legislative affairs, “this legislation is simply common sense. Protecting young girls from the devastating physical and emotional effects of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), pregnancy and abortion, as well as ensuring the rights of parents to be involved in such important issues in their daughters’ lives is good public policy.”

Please see the full memo attached below:

September 18, 2003

TO: All Legislators

FROM: Matt Sande, Director of Legislative Affairs
Mary Matuska, Deputy Director of Legislative Affairs

RE: Support for AB 383 / SB 186: Removal of Minor Children from the Medicaid Family Planning Demonstration Project

Pro-Life Wisconsin is a proud member of the Parents First! coalition, a group of over twenty organizations representing thousands of families across Wisconsin that are working to protect our young people from a physically and morally destructive new program called the Medicaid Family Planning Demonstration Project. The Project currently provides free, taxpayer funded birth control to 15, 16 and 17-year old girls without their parents’ knowledge or consent. Parents First! is fighting for passage of Assembly Bill (AB) 383 and Senate Bill (SB) 186, legislation that would cancel minor girls’ access to the Project.

This legislation is simply common sense. Protecting young girls from the devastating physical and emotional effects of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), pregnancy and abortion, as well as ensuring the rights of parents to be involved in such important issues in their daughters’ lives is good public policy.

Introduced by the Joint Committee for the Review of Administrative Rules (JCRAR), co-chaired by Representative Glenn Grothman and Senator Joe Leibham, AB 383 and SB 186 would specifically change the minimum age requirement, from 15 to 18 years, for eligibility for the Project which provides “family planning” services to low-income women. The following points argue the necessity of AB 383 and SB 186:

�h “Family Planning Project” Undermines Parents: Providing free, taxpayer funded birth control to 15 year-olds behind parents’ backs is irresponsible public policy. Federal and state law prohibits parental notification of an underage child who applies for services under the Medicaid Family Planning Demonstration Project. Contraceptive drugs and devices pose serious health risks for women, including blood clots, cancer, strokes and heart attacks. What parent would not want to know that their minor child is ingesting such potentially life threatening drugs? Should we not ensure that moms and dads are involved in the sexual health of their sons and daughters, not to mention their moral development?

A recent Zogby poll revealed that 70 percent of parents either “strongly disapprove” or “disapprove” of their child being able to obtain contraception without their knowledge or approval.* The very least we can do as a state is to respect parental authority; to recognize the love and concern that parents have for their children.

*(Zogby International 2003 Survey on Parental Opinions of Character-Based, Abstinence-Until-Marriage Sex Education vs. Comprehensive [“Abstinence-First,” Then Condoms] Sex Education, February 13, 2003)

�h “Family Planning Project” Increases STDs: Government-funded birth control contributes to an increase in STDs by encouraging sexual promiscuity. The Pill offers no protection against STDs including AIDS. With over thirty viruses today compared to only two in 1960, STDs among our teens have become a full-blown epidemic. Every day, 8,000 teens become infected with an STD – a direct result of our overemphasis on birth control and our culture’s “sex-with-no-consequences” mindset.
After twenty years crusading for safe sex by dispensing condoms and the Pill to adolescent patients, Dr. Meg Meeker, M.D., as described in her book Epidemic – How Teen Sex is Killing Our Kids,* realized she was horribly mistaken when her teen patients began marching in with dangerous STDs. She now counsels teens and parents on the medical importance of waiting to have sex. It’s time the State of Wisconsin reassess the so-called benefits of "family planning" for Wisconsin’s children.
*(“Epidemic: How Teen Sex is Killing our Kids,” by Meg Meeker, M.D.)

�h “Family Planning Project” is Ineffective: Compelling data indicates that broad contraceptive availability may actually work to increase underage pregnancy and abortion by encouraging sexual promiscuity, debunking Planned Parenthood’s theory that the provision of contraceptives to teens will reduce underage pregnancies.

A March 2002 study published in the Journal of Health Economics investigated the impact of family planning on teenage conceptions and abortions by testing data from 16 United Kingdom regions over a 14-year period.* The author of the study concluded that “the overall effect of expanding family planning services for under-16s has been to increase pregnancies and abortion.”

*(“The Economics of Family Planning and Underage Conceptions,” Dr. David Paton, Nottingham University Business School)

An April 2003 study published in the journal Adolescent and Family Health demonstrates that abstinence, not contraception, lowered teen pregnancy and birth rates.* It overturns Planned Parenthood’s claim that 80 percent of the decline in the pregnancy rate is due to contraceptive use and 20 percent to abstinence. The authors compared the drop in the birth and pregnancy rates between 1991 and 1995. Among unmarried girls, abstinence accounted for the entire decline in births and a 67 percent drop in pregnancies.

*(“An Analysis of the Causes of the Decline in Non-marital Birth and Pregnancy Rates for Teens from 1991 to 1995,” Joanna K. Mohn, MD, Lynne R. Tingle, Ph.D., Reginald Finger, MD, MPH)

Pro-Life Wisconsin strongly encourages your support of AB 383 and SB 186. Thank you for your consideration.