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The Right Time For The Right Time
We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to pursue the future they want, including if, when, and under what circumstances to get pregnant. Having a child can impact the entire trajectory of your life, and empowering women to decide for themselves when the time is right can make a huge difference on health outcomes for both mom and baby.
This is why we launched our new initiative with a fitting name – The Right Time. With a goal of reducing Missouri’s unintended pregnancy rate by 10%, through this work we are committed to addressing persistent health inequities that exist around unintended pregnancy and marginalized populations. We’re working with a variety of health centers in targeted regions across the state to expand access to the full range of contraceptive methods. At participating clinics all methods are free or low-cost to those who need them.
The Right Time aims to help women most in need of contraceptive services, with special attention to eliminating health inequities by reducing cost, access, and knowledge barriers, and focusing on equity for women who are uninsured or underinsured, geographically isolated, low income, teens, and/or women of color.
When women get pregnant on their own terms, they have fewer challenges in achieving their educational and career goals. This means substantive economic gains for them and their families. Fewer unintended pregnancies also lead to large reductions in health care costs to the state. Our partner in this work is Missouri Family Health Council. With its expertise and experience we launched the initiative in April of 2019 with six partner clinics in 14 total locations. Clinics are receiving training, technical assistance, and funding to increase access to all contraceptive methods. Two more sets of partner clinics will be added the following two years, leading to a peak of approximately 21 in 2021.
2019 Participating Health Centers:
- Fordland Clinic (Fordland, Kimberling City)
- Betty Jean Kerr People’s Health Centers (St. Louis)
- Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri (Joplin, Springfield, St. Louis)
- Contraceptive Choice Center (St. Louis)
- Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services (Columbia)
- Jefferson County Health Department (Arnold, High Ridge, Hillsboro)
