State officials back activists in lowering teen birth rates

http://www.lowellsun.com/todaysheadlines/ci_22479455/state-officials-back-activists-lowering-teen-birth-rates

This article is about how Boston called for $1.5 million in additional state spending to address unmet needs and help keep the state's teen birth rate down. According to the Massachusetts Family Planning Association, the state in fiscal 2012 provided funding for 58 percent of people deemed eligible for services, with costs to serve the remaining 42 percent paid for with federal funding or absorbed by family planning agencies. In arguing for the funding, the association touted unintended pregnancies, births and abortions averted as the result of services provided at 89 family planning sites. Smith said the teen birth rate in Massachusetts hit a new low in 2010, the last year for which data is available, and is half the national average. MassHealth plans to cover 200,000 additional people in 2014 under the federal Affordable Care Act, according to Harris, a primary-care physician who said he used to work in the reproductive-health field and called family-planning clinics "our partners on the front lines."