The two states may nuzzle up against one another geographically, but Minnesota and Wisconsin couldn’t be further apart on common sense issues like preventing unintended pregnancy. This week, they displayed entirely different approaches to the same problem. A Minnesota state law that went into effect this week will lower costs and improve access to birth control. The legislation permits family-planning clinics to buy contraceptives through cooperative purchasing agreements that will lower the cost. Previously, each clinic negotiated with pharmaceutical companies separately thereby placing orders too small to receive big discounts. The new cost savings will get passed along to women of Minnesota, expanding access for many.

Compare that pro-active, pro-prevention approach to Wisconsin's strategy. Wisconsin legislators know that nearly half of all new mothers in the state are poor and so rely on Medicaid to cover their pregnancy and delivery care (a 26% increase since 2000). And so they are considering eliminating family planning clinics throughout the state. The Wisconsin state Assembly proposed to ban state money from going to any entity that provides abortion counseling and/or services. If this becomes law, thirty-five clinics will shut their doors and almost 35,000 low-income women and families in the state will lose access to contraception. The unintended irony is that for every dollar Wisconsin withholds from family planning, it will spend three in costs related to unintended pregnancy. Who knew Wisconsin voters were such spendthrifts!

This week's edition of US News and World Reports discusses a small survey conducted by University of Chicago researchers that found nearly 60 percent of unmarried women ages 58 to 93 said they didn't use a condom the last time they had sex. And while pregnancy may no longer be a concern, many seniors are learning the hard way that disease still is. Fifteen percent of new HIV infections occur in this age group, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Other STDs, including herpes, chlamydia, and human papillomavirus, which is linked to cervical cancer, are also on the rise. Maybe its time to get comprehensive (age-appropriate) sex-ed messages out to our silvered singles. Or else the abstinence crowd may take its virginity pledges to assisted living communities.

Anti-contraception activists must be rejoicing at a major change underway in the Philippines as a result of their efforts. Because of the drastic funding cuts to the US foreign aid for contraceptives program, USAID, it was reported this week that The Population Commission of the Philippines "has shifted its population campaign from scientific way to natural family planning after the United States government stopped the supply of contraceptives, including pills and condoms." The Philippines has already banned abortion. (Although the country has now has higher rates of abortion than the US, which is consistent with the pro-life-approach-leads-to-more-abortions-trend mentioned in previous posts.) Now, since 40% of its population live below the poverty line and can't afford to purchase contraception, effectively contraception is banned for much of the population too. High unintended pregnancy and abortion rates and no access to contraception? For the religious right that's a mission accomplished!