Young women in South Carolina need more information about and access to contraceptive services. In 2006, the Guttmacher Institute estimated that about nine out of every 100 women of childbearing age in the state experience pregnancy each year. While 70 percent of these pregnancies end in live birth, 15 percent end in abortion and an equal proportion end in miscarriage. Further, the Institute estimated that South Carolina has one of the higher teenage pregnancy rates in the United States. Across the nation and in South Carolina, about 85 percent of teenage pregnancies are unintended and about 19 percent end in abortion.
Nearly half a million women in South Carolina (about 467,000) need contraceptive services and a quarter of a million women (over 249,000) need publicly funded contraceptive services BECAUSE they are low-income and/or are sexually active teenagers. For these adult and teenage women, paying for health care and/or purchasing contraception can be hard.
South Carolina has 76 publicly funded family planning clinics that offer contraceptive care to 56 percent of the adult women and 41 percent of the teenage women in need of such services. Obviously, the state needs more publicly funded family planning services. Yet, every county in South Carolina does have at least one family planning clinic.
South Carolina has expanded Medicaid eligibility for family planning services. It has no mandate either to ensure or to exclude insurance coverage for contraception. Women in SC have reasonably good access to emergency contraception (EC), even though too many providers still have incorrect information about EC. Its laws permit minors to consent to contraceptive services if they are: 1) age 16 or over; 2) married; and/or 3) mature or emancipated. The state has put no restrictions on its family planning funds and has no policy either allowing or prohibiting health care providers to refuse birth control to patients. Overall, Guttmacher Institute estimated that South Carolina ranked seventh in service availability; 10th in laws and policies; second in public funding; and third overall among the 50 states.
This means that South Carolina’s young women can get the birth control information and services they need, if they are determined and forthright in demanding care. However, the state’s unintended pregnancy rate and rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV, could be much lower if the state would: encourage more providers to offer family planning services; open more publicly funded clinics; and promote state- and county-wide campaigns to educate young women, young men, and service providers about the availability and safety of contraception, including EC.
General Facts:
- Types of Contraception
- Reproductive Health Outcomes & Contraceptive Use among U.S. Teens
- Adolescent Protective Behaviors: Abstinence and Contraceptive Us
- Comparing the Effectiveness of Various Contraceptive Methods for Pregnancy Prevention
- Condom Effectiveness
- Adolescent Sexual Health in Europe and the U.S.—Why the Difference?
- Emergency Contraception: A Safe & Effective Contraceptive Option for Teens
- Improving Youth's Access to Contraception in Latin America
- Mejorando el Acceso de los Jóvenes a los Métodos Anticonceptivos en América Latina
