NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado : News : Press Releases

DENVER HOSTS FIRST REGIONAL SUMMIT TO ADDRESS URBAN STRATEGIES TO MEET CRITICAL HEALTH NEEDS

EDITOR’S NOTE: Except for welcoming reception, overall Summit closed to media; select local and national experts available for on-site and phone interview -- contact Toni Panetta at 626-676-3482 to arrange

TABLE ATTACHED: REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH INDICATORS FOR SELECT URBAN COUNTIES IN COLORADO

Contact: Samantha Levine, National Institute for Reproductive Health, 646-520-3510

First-ever regional conference draws city officials, health care providers, to promote healthier birth outcomes, increase access to comprehensive reproductive health services

DENVER (Sept. 23) – More than 150 city officials, community leaders, doctors and other health care professionals from Alamosa, Albuquerque, Austin, Boise, Boulder, Cheyenne, Colorado Springs, Dallas, Denver, Durango, Fort Collins, Helena, Houston, Laramie, Missoula, Pueblo, Salt Lake City and San Antonio, will gather this evening at Cableland, the official residence of Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, to open the first-ever Urban Initiative for Reproductive Health Rocky Mountain West Regional Summit. The multi-day event will be anchored by a day of interactive sessions highlighting successful reproductive health delivery models on Thursday, Sept. 24, at The Cable Center, 2000 Buchtel Blvd., at the University of Denver Campus.

Emilie C. Ailts, executive director of The NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado Foundation, one of the organizations hosting the summit, said, “This event provides a unique opportunity for the people and organizations responsible for meeting city residents’ reproductive health care needs to come together. It allows us to talk about the challenges we’re facing and learn about out-of-the-box approaches that our colleagues in other cities throughout the Rocky Mountain West have used to address these challenges.”

The Urban Initiative for Reproductive Health Rocky Mountain West Regional Summit is hosted by the Office of Strategic Partnerships of the City and County of Denver, the Denver-based NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado Foundation, and New York City-based National Institute for Reproductive Health (National Institute). The Denver-based summit is the first in a series of regional conferences to be held this year in Denver, Atlanta, Chicago and Los Angeles, that build on a successful model launched in New York City in 2008 to focus on reproductive health care needs in the nation’s urban areas.

“When I think about the genesis of the Urban Initiative a few years ago, I recall talking to a few colleagues who, like me, shared frustration about watching as the federal government -- and many state governments--failed to address the growing reproductive health disparities faced by urban communities,” said Kelli Conlin, president of National Institute.

“But we realized that elected officials and advocates from our cities have risen to the occasion time and time again and demonstrated their unwavering commitment to protecting and expanding women’s reproductive health for their constituents,” Conlin said. “Urban communities have shown real ingenuity by developing and implementing sound and effective reproductive health strategies – increasing access to family planning, empowering healthy teens, reducing reproductive health disparities and ensuring healthy pregnancies – that have had a genuine and lasting impact on the lives of women living in their cities.”

“In the midst of our current national dialogue about health care reform, it can be easy to forget that city residents experience worse reproductive health outcomes compared to the national average,” Ailts said. “For example, AIDS incidence rates in cities are twice the national average. Infant mortality, low-birth-weight rates and unintended pregnancy are also higher in large cities, especially among low-income women. Many of the poor reproductive health indicators are directly tied to limited access to health care services and information -- which is in turn linked with some of the systemic problems plaguing many urban areas: poverty, racism, shortage of affordable housing, crime, lack of adequate public transportation, and the concentration of environmental pollutants and toxins.”

Press interested in interviewing local and national experts participating in the Urban Initiative for Reproductive Health Rocky Mountain West Regional Summit should contact Toni Panetta at (626) 676-3482.

The NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado Foundation supports educational programs to promote access to the full range of reproductive health care options necessary to prevent unintended pregnancy, bear healthy children, or access safe, legal abortion.

The Urban Initiative is a multi-year project of National Institute for Reproductive Health that works to create and promote local policy solutions to address reproductive health problems facing cities across the nation. More details at http://www.urbaninitiative.org/About/Summit-2009-RockyMountainWest

(Boulder, Denver, El Paso, Larimer, Mesa, Pueblo, Weld)

COLO.
BOULDER
DENVER
EL PASO
Women of Child-Bearing Age (15-44 years old)
1,061,487
64,642
123,797
124,808
Unintended Pregnancy Rates
39.8
32.3
43.1
44.5
Teen Fertility Rate (births per 1,000 women aged 15-17)
23.7
13
42.7
19.7
Inadequate Pre-Natal Care (Percentage of pregnancies that received inadequate prenatal care)
14.6
8
21
15.9
Percentage of Births to Women with < 12 years of Education
21.4
16.3
3.9
14.8
Percentage of Low-Weight Births (<5.5 lbs)
9
7
9.7
10.1
Women Covered by Medicaid for Prenatal Care
34.4
19.2
38.3
31.7
AIDS/HIV Cases Reported through March 2008
10,451
421
5,993
695
Gonorrhea (rate for per 100,000 people)
71.6
23
240
105
Chlamydia (rate per 100,000 people)
333.9
210
750
440

COLO.
LARIMER
MESA
PUEBLO
WELD
Women of Child-Bearing Age (15-44 years old)
1,061,487
62,313
27,139
30,992
54,733
Unintended Pregnancy Rates
39.8
39.8
43.8
46
39.2
Teen Fertility Rate (births per 1,000 women aged 15-17)
23.7
16.3
30.5
36.6
32.8
Inadequate Pre-Natal Care (Percentage of pregnancies that received inadequate prenatal care)
14.6
13.7
11.5
16
18.1
Percentage of Births to Women with < 12 years of Education
21.4
13.5
22.2
29.9
25.1
Percentage of Low-Weight Births (<5.5 lbs)
9
8
7.3
9.6
7.2
Women Covered by Medicaid for Prenatal Care
34.4
31.7
50.6
57.6
29.3
AIDS/HIV Cases Reported through March 2008
10,451
186
80
147
138
Gonorrhea (rate for per 100,000 people)
71.6
23
35
10.5
48
Chlamydia (rate per 100,000 people)
333.9
205
325
43.5
270

Reproductive health indicators for urban communities nationwide are available at http://www.urbaninitiative.org/Resources/LocalProfiles.

Women of childbearing age: The number of women aged 15 to 44 years as of 2006 as reported by the State Demography Office of the Colorado Department of Local Affairs.

Unintended pregnancy rate: Percentage of live births that were the result of unwanted or unintended pregnancies in 2006 (or the latest year for which data are available) according to data collected through the Colorado Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment between 2000 and 2006. PRAMS statistics accessed via the Colorado Health Information Dataset available at http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/cohid.

Teen fertility rate: Total number of live births per 1,000 women aged 15-17 in 2006 (or the latest year for which data are available) as reported by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Birth statistics data accessed via the Colorado Health Information Dataset available at http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/cohid.

Inadequate prenatal care: Percentage of pregnancies that received inadequate prenatal care in 2006 (or the latest year for which data are available) as measured using the Kotelchuck Adequacy of Prenatal Care Utilization Index (KAPCUI) for all ages. Birth statistics data accessed via the Colorado Health Information Dataset available at http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/cohid.

Births to women with less than 12 years of education: Percentage of all births in 2006 (or the latest year for which data are available) to women with less than 12 years of education as reported by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Birth statistics data accessed via the Colorado Health Information Dataset available at http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/cohid.

Low birth weight: Percentage of all live births in 2006 (or the latest year for which data are available) where the weight at birth was less than 5.5 pounds as reported by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Birth statistics data accessed via the Colorado Health Information Dataset available at http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/cohid.

Women covered by Medicaid for prenatal care: Percentage of most recent pregnancies resulting in live birth in 2006 (or the latest year for which data are available) that were covered by Medicaid according to data collected through the Colorado Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment between 2000 and 2006. PRAMS statistics accessed via the Colorado Health Information Dataset available at http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/cohid.