LATEST STORIES / HEALTH
Has Colorado cracked the code on birth control access?
At 17 years old, Prisca Sisa found out she was pregnant. After her baby was born, she knew she didn’t want any more children while she worked to graduate high school. Thanks to the doctors and nurses who supported her throughout her pregnancy, Sisa was directed toward the Young Mother’s Clinic.
“I didn’t know that I could access free birth control until I was a patient at the Young Mother’s Clinic,” Sisa said. “There was a lack of not only easy access but awareness about what was available to me when I was younger.”
The Young Mother’s Clinic provides various healthcare services and resources to help young mothers and their children as a part of Colorado Children’s Hospital. This affiliation allows them to connect their patients with BC4U, a series of Title X family planning clinics also within the Colorado Children’s Hospital system.
Since 2009, BC4U has provided free birth control solutions, educational resources and other reproductive health services to people under 25 years old in Colorado. Access to these resources gave Sisa the ability to make her own choices for her future, but there is still work to be done. While BC4U has brought water to contraceptive deserts across the state, many females, especially females of color, still find themselves cut off from accessing their services.
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