An unintended pregnancy is one that was either mistimed or unwanted. Unintended pregnancy rates are highest among poor and low-income women, women aged 18–24, single women and women of color and who have not completed high school. Nearly half of unintended pregnancies end in abortions. The overwhelming majority of those births are paid for with public funding.

Repeat unintended pregnancies among poor women usually place them and their children deeper into poverty.

In 2014, there were 470 pregnancies in Adams County, most of those pregnancies were unintended. Also, 71 percent of those pregnant were unmarried. Fifteen percent did not have a high school diploma, and only 9 percent had a college degree. Fourteen percent of the pregnancies were aborted.

A poor woman is more than five times more likely to get pregnant by accident than a middle-and-upper income woman. But this is not because poor women are more sexually active. In fact, all groups equally sexually active.  However, when poor teens and women do have sex, they are much less likely to use contraception.

Having a child before a woman is ready to become a parent wreaks all sorts of havoc in her life. It makes finishing high school or attending college much more difficult, getting affordable and quality child care more challenging, which in turn makes ever replacing Welfare with a higher paying job and better quality of life nearly impossible. It places a burden on her family, community and local government.

It’s time to give poor and low-income women more control over their fertility, hence, take it out of the control of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries and government. It’s time to offer them a choice that is both effective and affordable.  That alternative is natural family planning, particularly the Billings Ovulation Method.

The Billings Ovulation Method was developed over 50 years ago, and it is the most scientifically researched method of natural family planning.  It is 99.5 percent effective in postponing pregnancy. One of its greatest benefits is its simplicity and the ease with which it is learned and taught.  The Billings Method requires no prescriptions, devices, or surgical procedures to avoid pregnancy.  And, it has no harmful side effects as with many of the artificial methods. It can be used throughout a woman’s reproductive life to avoid and plan pregnancies.

Tomorrow, 30 lucky teens and young adult mothers will have the opportunity to learn about the Billings Ovulation Method during a lunch and workshop, which will be taught by Debbie Tubertini, a certified Billings instructor from Jackson. If they choose to use the method, they will receive ongoing counseling and support. Mrs. Tubertini, a resident of Jackson, has used Billings Ovulation Method for the past 32 years.

“My husband and I have used this method all of our married life.  We have used Billings to postpone, achieve, spacing of our children, during breastfeeding and also when we experienced infertility,” Tubertini said. “The Billings method has helped me to understand better how my body works and how important a women’s cycle plays into the creation of new life or not.”

The event will be Saturday in downtown Natchez. You must be a young mother or expecting to give birth within 3 weeks. To register contact Geraldine Faniel at 601-870-2970, Edith Burns at 318-719-9331 or Getty Israel at 601-487-6894.

Geraldine Faniel is a Natchez resident.