South Carolina Medicaid, along with 19 other states, gives women the option of birth control at quite an odd time: right after having a child.[1] Nearly half of all pregnancies in the United States are unplanned, and in a majority of those cases, the woman already has at least one child with rates twice as high for women in poverty.[2] Many women in this situation who are offered birth control after having a child will have a doctor implant new and more modern IUDs that last for up to five years and are far more effective than condoms and the pill.[3]
The reason behind doing this small procedure at this opportune time is because most often, especially if the woman already has a child, it may be[4] unduly burdensome just for one trip to the doctor for herself, let alone for her children as well. The idea is to take advantage of the time when women are already in the hospital so they don’t have to come back for such a simple procedure.[5] This timing is also important because the woman is more likely to be insured because pregnant women who are poor and without insurance are put on Medicaid temporarily.[6] Medicaid covers nearly half of all births in the country.[7]
[1] Sabrina Tavernise, When to Offer Birth Control? Medicaid Has Idea, New York Times, Oct. 29, 2016, at A1
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Id.
[6] Id.
[7] Id.