Why is it so hard to get effective birth control in the US? | Mark Edwards

TED Health

TED

Health & Fitness, Fitness, Shoshana Ungerleider, Medicine, How To Be Healthier, Ted Shoshana, Ted Talks Health

4.2 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 19 September 2023

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Nearly half of all pregnancies in the United States are unplanned, the result of millions of people being unable to get the birth control method that works best for them. Reproductive health advocate and 2023 Audacious Project grantee Mark Edwards discusses Upstream USA's nationwide effort to expand access to high-quality contraceptive care by integrating it into primary health-care settings -- a crucial shift towards increasing equal health opportunities and empowering people to decide when and if they want to start families. (This ambitious idea is a part of the Audacious Project, TED's initiative to inspire and fund global change.)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Ted Audio Collective
0:16.0	Welcome to Ted Health, it's Dr. Shoshana Ungerleiter.
0:19.0	In the ever-changing world of reproductive health,
0:23.0	it's essential that everyone can equally access different forms of birth control.
0:27.0	Health advocate Mark Edwards shows us how the choices we make about reproductive health
0:33.0	impact not only our personal lives, but also the progress of society as a whole.
0:39.0	In his Ted 2023 talk, Mark reframes birth control as a necessary tool for reducing inequality
0:47.0	and a vital part of everyday health care.
0:50.0	Get ready to geek out!
0:58.0	The Wired Science Podcast explores all the latest and greatest in science.
1:03.0	Everything from strange diseases and biological breakthroughs to interesting tech and mysteries and outer space.
1:09.0	Listen to Wired Science today wherever you get your podcasts.
1:13.0	That's Wired Science, wherever you get your podcasts.
1:18.0	About eight years ago, I met a young woman, I'll call her Sophia,
1:23.0	and she showed me her newborn in her lap, and she said to me,
1:27.0	this wasn't my plan.
1:29.0	She described how her unplanned pregnancy forced her to drop out of community college,
1:34.0	how she then lost her job, and was now living with her mother in Texas.
1:39.0	Sophia had already had two unplanned children before this third child was born.
1:45.0	All three of Sophia's pregnancies occurred while she was on the pill.
1:49.0	It was a birth control method that just didn't work for her,
1:52.0	but it was the only method she'd ever been offered.
	...

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