The costs and benefits of government expenditures for family planning programs

In 1979, federal and state governments spent a total of $285 million to finance family planning clinic services in the United States. As a result, about 695,000 pregnancies (239,000 births, 370,000 abortions and 86,000 miscarriages) were averted among low- and marginal-income patients; and at least $570 million was saved in government expenditures during the following year for childbirth, postnatal and pediatric care, abortions and welfare payments that would have been required in the absence of the clinic services. In other words, for every dollar spent by the government on family planning clinic services in 1979, about two dollars were saved in public-sector expenditures for health and welfare services to women and their babies during the next year. The first-year benefits were especially high for teenagers--about three dollars saved for every government dollar expended. Although teenagers accounted for only one-third of the clinic patients served in 1979, nearly half of the government savings can be attributed to family planning clinic services to women in their teens. Costs were greater than savings for patients aged 30 and older, but these older patients represent only 12 percent of the clinic patient population.