Women’s Center hosts Margaret Taylor as lunch time speaker

On Feb. 26, the UTM Women’s Center hosted speaker Margaret Taylor from the A Step Ahead Foundation (ASAF).

The ASAF in West Tennessee provides free services to women regarding contraceptive counseling, STI and pregnancy testing, wellness checkups and long acting reversible contraceptives (LARC).

Taylor was on campus to discuss the usefulness of LARC’s and the impact that free options to everyone would have on the unplanned teen pregnancy rates in Tennessee.

The main forms of LARC’s that Taylor focused on were the Nexaplanon implant, the Mirena IUD and the ParaGard IUD.

In Memphis, access to free LARC’s helped reduce the rate of unplanned pregnancies by 38 percent and dropped the abortion rate by 41 percent in only five years time, according to Taylor.

Implants and IUD’s are seen as better options for long-term birth control due to the fact that they last much longer than the pill and the Depo-Provera shot.

The Nexaplanon implant can remain inserted for three years, the Mirena IUD is good for up to five years and the ParaGard IUD can last up to 10 years. Each of these options can be removed at any time should a woman decide to take them out for any reason.

The ASAF provides free implantation, removal, changes and clinic visits to every woman and will even provide transportation to and from visits. They do not, however, provide birth-control pills, patches or rings.

“An educated woman is an empowered woman,” Taylor stated during her lecture.

Taylor will be returning to campus on March 14 in UC room 206 at 6 p.m., and will be hosting another interactive discussion about ASAF and the services they provide, which will be hosted by the Women’s Center.

The UTM Women’s Center, located in Paul Meek Library room 214, provides many services and connections as well.

More information about ASAF can be found on their website at www.asafwestTN.org.