All women should have access to basic reproductive health care regardless of their income, but the high cost of health care and health insurance makes family planning services unavailable to many women.

Family planning and access to reproductive health services are the most cost-effective public health interventions available.

Please consider: *

• Between 1994 and 2001, the rate of unintended pregnancy increased by 29% among U.S. women whose income was below the poverty line, while it decreased 22% among women with income at least twice the federal poverty level.
  
  

• Low income women have a high rate of unintended pregnancy -- more than double the national average.
  
  

• Unintended pregnancy is three times as common for women without a high school diploma as for college graduates. 

• In 2001, poor women as opposed to higher income counterparts were:


• About four times likely to have an unintended pregnancy.
• Five times as likely to have an unintended birth, and
• More than three times as likely to have an abortion.

• Over the course of the year, 16% of sexually active U.S. women who are at risk of unintended pregnancy use no method of contraception or have a gap in method use. Among poor and low educated women, the percentages of using no method or having a gap in use are even higher.
  
  
• Although using contraceptive methods, low income women are approximately 2.5 times more likely to have method failure.
  
  
• Substantial evidence indicates that modern contraception cost is a serious barrier for low income women.
  
  
• Every dollar invested in publicly funded family planning and reproductive health services returns almost four dollars in savings for pregnancy — related medical costs in the first year alone.

Dr. Tiller’s generosity to women in need was legendary within the reproductive health community. One former Planned Parenthood volunteer recalls, “Whenever there was an exceptional case of need — if a woman had serious health issues she could not afford to address — Dr. Tiller would help make it possible for her to get the care she needed.”

The creators and advisors of The George Fund believe strongly in medical equality, and will seek to address these compelling facts by providing resources, education, and access to women in need. Like George Tiller himself, The George Fund seeks to address the needs of the whole woman.

Together we will continue his vision.
Help us help women.

*Source: Guttmacher Institute