Riley County Commissioner Ben Wilson isn’t like most 22-year olds.
For one, few are county commissioners, and two, he campaigned on a conservative platform that goes against where the majority of Americans his age tend to lean.
In June, Wilson — a freshman commissioner and just a couple years removed from being a college freshman — raised concerns about the county’s funding of certain healthcare services. Because of that, a chunk of Monday morning’s county commission meeting was spent going over a little bit of sex ed.
Counties across the state are in the middle of crafting their budgets for 2016 and Wilson recently voiced his concern with reproductive health services offered by the Riley County Health Department after the department requested $211,699 from the county to budget for the Family Planning Program for the next fiscal year.
Although the county chipping in for the program has been the norm every budget year — even before the health department merged with local government in 2012 — Wilson was concerned taxpayer dollars were used for abortion methods, and he questioned whether or not taxpayers were getting a good return on the county’s investment in those services.
Monday morning, Wilson got his answers.
Riley County Health Department Nursing Supervisor Gail Chalman not only informed Wilson in great detail — and everyone else in the chamber — about some of the intricacies concerning the birds and the bees, but also the long-term cost-savings of reproductive health services and that pregnancy-prevention methods the county provides fall under strict state guidelines and are pre-conception in nature.
“It’s the best investment we can make,” Chalman said during her presentation to commissioners. “The Guttmacher Institute for sexual studies and advanced reproductive health has estimated over the past few years that dollars invested in Title X or other public funding for family planning or reproductive services has a net savings, starting in 2005, of $3 per dollar invested, to $7.09 in 2010.”
Using that math, Chalman said public dollars going into the program — which totals $340,517 including state and federal contributions — potentially saves the county $2.4 million per year using 2010 figures.
“So there is a savings associated with monies invested,” she said.
Chalman said family planning and reproductive health services save the county in the long run by keeping the community healthy in ways of preventing sexually transmitted diseases, cervical, breast and ovarian cancer, and the promotion of planned pregnancies, just to name a few.
Last month Wilson was concerned with the contraceptives the health department provides, and Chalman said they are another important part of the program’s function.
“Families who have intended pregnancies have fewer problems with domestic abuse, their children have a greater rate of completing education and we have less involvement in crime for those families,” she said. “(Contraceptives) help to insure pregnancies are intended.”
Wilson wanted more clarification on the contraceptive methods, though.
“One question I have is that it seems like a lot of these cost savings that have been talked about aren’t directly related to the type of (contraceptive) methods used, whether they are or abortifacients or not,” he said.
Chalman assured Wilson that no monies used in the program may be used for abortion services.
“That means we can’t promote them, we can’t help people get to them, nor can we use that money for anything that’s an abortifacient,” she said.
Chalman said the contraceptives the county provides are pre-conception focused.
“The way that they work is that they prevent the sperm and the egg from meeting,” she said. “So there’s no conception.”
Wilson asked Chalman if the county provides Plan B or other “morning after” pills.
“We do provide Plan B,” she said. “Plan B is only 80 percent effective. Why is Plan B only 80 percent effective? Because it only works by preventing ovulation. You have to take it before the woman ovulates. If she is already ovulated and there’s already been conception, Plan B doesn’t work.
“We do not provide the newer type of morning after pill, nor do I plan on doing that.”
Wilson had no further questions.
