Don’t Throw Out Birth Control With the Budget Bathwater

Last month, when Gray Davis proposed his first round of budget cuts, he went where no governor should go in a state this overpopulated.

He put condoms on the chopping block.

Davis didn’t specifically say, “OK, no more Trojans.” But critics say his trimming of Medi-Cal reimbursement rates, medical supplies, and a state media campaign designed to prevent unintended pregnancies, essentially means less birth control and more babies.

“We’re just biting our fingernails,” said Kathy Kneer, a Planned Parenthood executive who feared even more damage today when the governor releases details on sweeping budget cuts and tax increases.

Once again in California, which anticipates huge population growth, we’re in the midst of monumental policy decisions and no one is asking one of the most obvious questions.

How many people are too many?

The budget gap is a product of a bonehead spending binge during the short-lived dot-com revenue windfall. But it’s also the result of unchecked population growth.

“There’s not a single problem in California that’s not made worse by overpopulation,” says Eddie Tabash of Californians for Population Stabilization.

So what’s being done about it? All the wrong things.

The born-again Bush administration and true believers in Congress are pitching a national policy of abstinence, arguing that a faith-based life will help stem the urge. It’s a nice thought, but I went to church and Catholic school, and I spent the whole time thinking about nothing but sex.

Bush even nixed $34 million for the U.N. Population Fund’s worldwide family planning programs last summer, contending that the money would pay for abortions.

And what does he think sick and hungry foreigners do when their own teeming countries can’t take care of them?

They come to California, or at least a lot of them do. We ought to be sending the bill to George Bush and the pope.

That’s not to say we should slam the door on immigration or growth, which have made California one of the most interesting and productive places on the planet. But if federal policy continues to promote wide-open borders so business can have an endless supply of cheap labor, California’s congressional delegation ought to keep screaming for the feds to pay their fair share for the education and health care of the working poor.

And California ought to be handing out more condoms, not fewer.

One in three California children is born to an unwed mother, says the state Department of Health Services, and the number of out-of-wedlock births to teenagers is as high as two out of three. If that’s not outrageous enough, California’s adolescent population is in the midst of an explosion that far outpaces the national average.

“I think family planning is an incredibly good investment,” says Assemblywoman Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park). “It’s a sensible way to approach population growth and unplanned pregnancies that end up costing the state so much in the long run.”

Some estimate that for every dollar invested in birth control, the state saves $3 or $4 on the cost of unwanted pregnancies.

“We have the most comprehensive programs in the country for those who could be at risk, and we’re very worried about jeopardizing that,” says Kneer. “When people jump to conclusions and say you can’t change birth rates, it’s not true. We’re really making a huge difference in California.”

Although teenage birth rates are still too high, they dropped every year between 1991 and 2001 in California, including among Latinos, who have the highest fertility rate. Kneer credits, among other things, a state campaign that uses billboards and radio and TV ads to promote safe sex.

Davis proposed trimming $1.26 million from that campaign in December, and the Department of Health Services said another proposal could mean a $142,067 cut in condoms and other contraceptives.

First the governor ignored my call for him to send out three-packs as stocking stuffers. Now we’re into January, and he’s still playing Scrooge. You’d think a guy who routinely raised $142,000 in campaign money by lunchtime could hit up one of his big donors to cover the cost of statewide protection.

But the penny-wise, pound-foolish act gets worse. Assemblywoman Chu says the governor’s 10% cut in Medi-Cal reimbursement rates could force doctors who now provide $3.3 million in family planning services to opt out. That could cost the state millions of dollars more in federal matching funds and who knows how many condoms?

The man in the gray flannel woos us all summer, has his way with us in November, and here we are in January: knocked up and unloved.

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Steve Lopez writes Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at steve.lopez@latimes.com