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Planned Parenthood Providing Free Contraceptive Arm Implant In Louisville

Jennifer Morrow/Creative Commons

Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky is launching a new program to provide a long-acting, reversible contraceptive arm implant to women in Louisville.

The Louisville Implant Program will provide Nexplanon in a bid to help more women in Louisville access birth control. Pam Platt, a spokeswoman for PPINK, said the program aims to provide the implants to underinsured and uninsured women.

"The program is designed to remove the barriers for women who wish to access this very, very, very effective and long-acting birth control," she said.

Nexplanon is a soft amd flexible birth control implant that's four centimeters in length, according to its manufacturer, Merck. The implant is inserted on the inside of the upper arm and can be worn up to three years.

In 2010, 47 percent of all pregnancies in Kentucky were unintended, according to the Guttmacher Institute. That same year, 68 percent of unintended pregnancies in Kentucky resulted in births and 16 percent in abortions; the remainder resulted in miscarriages.

Platt said the program will serve women who are not already being served elsewhere and who want to avoid unwanted pregnancy.

In 2013, 281,940 Kentucky women aged 13–44 were in need of publicly funded family planning services, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Publicly supported family planning centers in Kentucky served 88,180 female contraceptive clients in 2013. Those centers met 31 percent of Kentucky women’s need for contraceptive services and supplies.

The program begins Jan. 20 and is funded through 2018.

Implants will only be inserted at the Planned Parenthood office located at 842 S 7th St. in Louisville. Appointments can be made by calling (800) 230-7526.