Skylar DeRight holds up two IUDs to be photographed in the offices of Cherokee Health Systems, where she works as a nurse practitioner, on Thursday, Aug. 24, 2017, in Chattanooga, Tenn. DeRight works with A Step Ahead to offer free long-term contraceptives to women in the Chattanooga area.Planned pregnancies are healthier than unintended pregnancies for babies, mothers, families and society, yet nearly half of pregnancies in the U.S. and Tennessee are unplanned.
A Step Ahead Chattanooga is working to change that statistic by giving women access to long-acting, reversible contraceptives, often called LARCs, regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay.
Since the nonprofit organization began less than three years ago, A Step Ahead Chattanooga, with the support of local providers, has connected more than 1,000 women with the most effective, nonpermanent birth control options. The contraceptives come in the form of intrauterine devices or an arm implant that prevents pregnancy for up to three, five or 10 years, and can be removed if a woman wants to become pregnant.
“LARCs are kind of the gold standard of birth control right now, but they’re very, very expensive,” said Skylar DeRight, a women’s health nurse practitioner at Cherokee Health Systems’ Chattanooga clinic. “A Step Ahead allows me to tell women that the best birth control is available to them.”
The devices, along with the exam, insertion and potential follow-up visits, can cost more than $1,000.