Fiscal Responsibility And Contraception

[uncle ebeneezer]

Texas (http://www.mahablog.com/2011/04/21/government-math/)

The state estimates the pregnancies averted would reduce its Medicaid bill by more than $36 million next year. But when a budget expert told the Texas House Committee on Human Services that the program saved money, he was laced into by Representative Jodie Laubenberg for using “government math.”

[operative]

Texas (http://www.mahablog.com/2011/04/21/government-math/)

Very, very flawed reasoning. The biggest mistake is selectively choosing one statistic, not doing a full analysis, and instead rushing to a conclusion.

The actual statistics on teen pregnancy:
http://www.statemaster.com/graph/hea_tee_bir_rat_per_100-birth-rate-per-1-000

If anyone cares to come up with a quantitative measure of contraception policy (state-distributed condoms per 1000 people?) and run the linear regression, I'd welcome it. But that data sure suggests to me that the link between state policy on contraception and teen pregnancy is erroneous.