Choice Ireland

Wall Street Journal
18th August 2010

Wisconsin is pushing to expand a controversial program that uses federal Medicaid funds to provide free birth-control pills, vasectomies and other forms of contraception to low-income people, an effort made possible by the federal health-care overhaul.

It and 26 other states already provide free contraception and other reproductive-health services through a Medicaid pilot project to lower-earning women who otherwise wouldn't qualify. Among other things, the women get access to prescription birth control, Pap smears, testing for sexually transmitted diseases and, in some states, infertility treatments. Women qualify for Wisconsin's program if they make up to $21,600 a year for single people—twice the federal poverty level.

Wisconsin's plan has already been in political cross-hairs at times. The state touts it as cost-effective. Jason Helgerson, the state's Medicaid director, credits it with preventing unplanned pregnancies that "regardless of your political stripes, I don't think anybody wants." But critics point out that it allows girls and boys as young as 15 to participate without having to notify their parents.

Now, Wisconsin wants to widen the reach of its plan. Where funding previously was conditional and states had to reapply regularly, a provision in the health-care law allows states to make their plans permanent and get federal funding faster. Wisconsin applied in June to raise the qualifying limit to $32,490—a move that would expand the program's reach.

"That's just insane," said Julaine Appling, president of Wisconsin Family Action, a conservative lobbying group. "That is a whole new segment of our population that is now seeking reproductive health care on taxpayer money." Her group and others say they will try to thwart Wisconsin's expansion, though they see little chance, because Democrats control the legislature and the governor's office.