UK Budget Cuts Affect Contraceptives for Women

By Dane Lorica, | December 13, 2016

 Contraception is divided into 15 different types including combined pill, condoms, and implant ingestion. (Mike Mozart / CC BY 2.0)

Contraception is divided into 15 different types including combined pill, condoms, and implant ingestion. (Mike Mozart / CC BY 2.0)

The UK's health budget has been trimmed down affecting contraception service for women in the country.

The Department of Health spokesman said "local areas are best to decide how to provide the sexual health services their communities need."

The government cited the good progress in the country as teenage pregnancy has plummeted by 30 percent in England. With this, investing over £16 billion in local government public health services will be the department's goal for the next five years. According to the 2015 Spending Review from the government, there will be a reduction of 3.9 percent from the annual national budget starting April 2016 to April 2021. This totals to approximately £600m. A majority of the contraceptives for women are now covered by public health budgets.

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Approximately one and a half million individuals will be affected by the council's decision to restrict contraception services, according to the report from the Advisory Group on Contraception. Four sites in Dorset, Wandsworth, and Crewe have announced their impending closure or have already been shut down.

Sexual health professionals have warned that the said decision will lead to the inflation of unwanted pregnancies and abortions. The Family Planning chief executive Natika Halil said "councils are between a rock and a hard place when faced with cuts to public health budgets, but it's a false economy to restrict women's access to contraception."  Halil added that every pound allocated for birth control saved £11 worth of health costs.

Sharing the same sentiment, Dr. Anne Connolly noted that "it's hugely concerning to see that, in many parts of the country, contraceptive services are being cut, meaning that women can't access the most reliable types of contraception. Without close scrutiny, I'm worried this trend will only continue and that women will bear the consequences."

Consultant Jane Dickson also mentioned that newly developed contraception methods are reliable in controlling reproduction. "Those great steps forward that we've made to help women plan pregnancy at a time that's convenient for them, all that work will be done," she added.

Contraception is divided into 15 different types including combined pill, condoms, implant ingestion, progesterone pill, copper coil, hormonal coil, cap, diaphragm, patch, female condoms, female and male sterilization, vaginal ring, and fertility awareness. Sexual health experts say that Long-Acting Reversible Contraception (Larc) such as copper and hormonal coil and implant are the most cost-effective methods used and that women should be informed about the available methods of contraception.

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