Medicaid's Important Role in Pregnancy Prevention and Planning

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Unplanned pregnancy has major costs and consequences for families, public agencies and taxpayers alike. In 2006, 17.5 million women needed publicly funded contraceptive services, according to the Guttmacher Institute. However, only four in 10 of these women actually received services from a publicly funded family planning provider.

Medicaid is now the largest public funding source for family planning, accounting for $1.3 billion, or 71 percent, of all state and federal dollars spent on these services in 2006. Other public funding sources for family planning services for low-income and uninsured women and men include the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and Title X--the only federal program dedicated solely to providing family planning services to low-income …