At the recent conference of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the organization released findings from a recent Gallup poll it commissioned. The survey results reveal as alarming news about women's reproductive health in a declining economy.

Here's the takeaway: Women say that using birth control is extremely important to them but, increasingly, they can't afford it.

Gallup found that six percent of women using a hormonal form of birth control, such as the pill, said they had abandoned the method because they could not afford it. Ten percent of women said they were worried about their ability to keep paying for contraception. Some women said they had switched birth control methods because of cost. Women reported that, on average, having a reliable method of contraception is extremely important to them (a "9" on a scale of one to 10). Women who said that they have been affected a great deal by the country's economy are more than twice as likely to report that they have decided to limit the size of their family (29% vs. 13%); are more than twice as likely to talk to their partner about having an unintended pregnancy (26%
vs. 12%); and are more than three times as likely to postpone a planned pregnancy (15% vs. 5%). While family planning in tough economic times is no doubt a reasonable path there's another alarming finding: women are sacrificing their health when their pocketbooks are pinched.

Fourteen percent have postponed their annual Ob/Gyn check-up.

Given this, the Obama adminstration could not have had better timing with the report they released today, "Roadblocks to Health Care: Why the Current Health Care System Does Not Work for Women."

The report explains that "Women are more vulnerable to high health care costs than men," and that, "Women's reproductive health requires more regular contact with health care providers, including yearly pap smears, mammograms, and obstetric care." We're paying for these biological differences too: Women are often charged higher premiums than men during their reproductive years. According to the report, keeping other factors constant, a 22-year-old woman can be charged one and a half times the premium of a 22-year-old man. This difference largely disappears well after our fertility does--by age 64.

The cost disparity has a cascading effect. Almost half of women report problems paying medical bills, compared with 36% of men. One in three women were "forced to make a difficult trade off such as using up their savings, taking on debt, or giving up basic necessities." Increasingly, as the Gallup poll shows, the necessities they are forced to give up include contraception.

Lucky for us, the Obama administration is approaching the health care crisis with the understanding that women and men might not have equal access to the care they need. They identify the actual problem before designing a solution. This is heartening after so many years of an administration that viewed the solutions as the problem e.g., Bush’s opposition to birth control. The new approach is to view women's health and rights as critical pieces of our nation's recovery plan. Beginning to feel better already.