New Republican backed program of putting pregnancy tests in bar bathrooms to fight fetal alcohol syndrome demonstrates a lack of understanding concerning women, drinking, and FAS.

Courtesy of the New York Daily News:

A state-funded research project will offer free pregnancy tests at 20 bars in Alaska to stop expectant mothers from boozing. 

The University of Alaska has $400,000 to study if women are more likely to forego alcohol if a poster is pasted on a dispenser rather than a wall, reported the Anchorage Daily News. 

The project was proposed in March by Sen. Pete Kelly (R-Alaska) to flood bars and restaurants with tests to tackle birth defects and substance abuse problems in Alaska. 

Researchers claim Alaska has the highest rate of fetal alcohol syndrome because of frequent alcohol use among its female residents. 

The new study will target women with unexpected pregnancies with the help of a Minnesota nonprofit, Healthy Brains for Children, who installed the first pregnancy test dispenser in a bar in 2012 to curb fetal alcohol syndrome. 

Unlike the Minnesota dispensers, the tests in Alaska will be offered for free starting in December.

Okay while I appreciate that Pete Kelly wants to do SOMETHING about this terrible problem, it might help if he understood what the fuck he was trying to stop.

First off I think it is pretty clear that these machines will be treated as jokes by women in bars who will undoubtedly empty the machines every night just for shits and giggles, or to stock up for the future.

Second I work with the community most impacted by FAS, and the vast majority of the children are natives from rural communities, where there are few bars, and more drinking in the homes. Therefore even if this COULD have an impact, it won't impact the demographic that needs it the most.

Third there has already been a more thoughtful program launched in 2000, that actually DID have some favorable results:

The state has documented a 32 percent drop in the rate of Alaska children born with fetal alcohol syndrome. A state health official is attributing the decline largely to programs started under a multi-year, $29 million grant former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens obtained in a 2000 congressional earmark. 

The state used the money for both prevention and treatment of fetal alcohol syndrome, which occurs if a mother drinks during pregnancy. The state launched a multi-media campaign to educate people, and set up teams around the state to work with fetal alcohol kids. 

The findings of this program might well have helped this Pete Kelly guy if he had bothered to study what they discovered.  

The decline in the rate of fetal alcohol births was all due to a reduction in cases among Alaska Natives, Schoellhorn's report says. The rate of non-Native FAS births did not drop. 

It's not clear why that's the case, she said. 

Casto said she believes Alaska Native health organizations have strongly emphasized screening and intervention for pregnant women and women of child-bearing age. 

"They have recognized it as a huge problem. They are making an active and forceful effort to intervene." 

Yes well the number of cases in non-native births did not drop because they are already quite low already, and the number of native FAS births dropped because the program focused on education and prevention. Not simply installing dispensers in restaurant bathrooms and hoping for the best.

But hey, do you know what would have a HUGE effect on bringing down the number of FAS births?

Greater access to birth control, and sex education.

However Senator Kelly will have none of that.

I mean sure encouraging women to piss on a stick in a public restroom is reasonable, but offering them the opportunity to forgo unwanted pregnancies, take control of their lives, and plan when and with whom to start a family, well that's just social engineering.