Women’s health, family planning focus of event

Kayne Pyatt, Herald Reporter
Posted 7/30/19

Events continue to celebrate women's rights

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Women’s health, family planning focus of event

Posted

EVANSTON — Director of Uinta County Public Health Kim Proffit led an interactive discussion with an audience of 35 at the 19th Amendment Anniversary Committee’s July event co-sponsored with Public Health. Held at the Strand Theater on Monday, July 15, the event was free and open to all.

Proffit showed a computer-generated display of questions and statistics while engaging the audience members in a conversation about women’s reproductive health and birth control. The first question Proffit asked was, “What is the tie between women getting voting rights and progress in women’s health?” Answers varied from a woman having more power to be heard when she can vote, to electing legislators and senators who will support women’s rights, to the changes that women in the past have gained for women and girls of today.

“Less than three months after obtaining the right to vote, eight million women voted for the first time,” Proffit said.

The second question Proffit asked was, “What has the development of the birth control pill and other forms of contraceptives got to do with women’s health and equality?”  

Overall, the answer was the huge economic benefit to women and children when pregnancies are planned. Proffit said that Public Health statistics show that even today 49-50 percent of pregnancies in the United States are unintended, and one-third of the pregnancies in Wyoming are not planned. High costs to families and society are a result, she said. Globally, 40 percent of pregnancies are unplanned.

Proffit said planning for a pregnancy decreases the rate of abortions and raises the stature of women in society. Studies show that only 38 percent of teens who have a child before the age of 18 get a high school diploma.

After women began to vote, progress in areas of women’s health was noted. In 1935, Title V was passed providing welfare benefits for mothers and children; in 1960, the FDA approved the birth control pill and for health research to include women; in 2010 federal funds began to provide for the maternal infant and early childhood home visiting program (MIECHV 2010); and Title X was passed in 1970, which gave public funding to family planning centers. However, in 2017 that funding was cut drastically by the Trump administration. 

The last question posed by Proffit was, “Why do we care so much about women’s health?” Her answer was simple: “When we have healthy moms, we have a healthy world.”

Proffit went on to discuss a study done by the University of Washington that proved how critical mother-to-baby interaction is to the development and later success of the child. The research also showed that what happens in the womb and in the first three years of life does not stay in the womb. Capable and loving mothers raise capable and loving children.

Proffit concluded her part of the evening’s event by answering questions and naming some of the local organizations that empower women, including Uinta BOCES, SAFV Task Force, Public Health and the Healthy Baby program.

To end the evening’s event, the film “Choices of the Heart: The Margaret Sanger Story” was shown. At great personal risk, Sanger, a registered nurse and activist, provided education on reproductive health and family planning in a time in U.S. history when women had little control over their own bodies. Afterward, many in the audience admitted they had never heard of Sanger and how much she had done in her lifetime to empower women by giving them information on birth control.