(DOWNLOAD) "New Pregnancy Assistance Fund Under Health Care Reform: An Analysis" by Guttmacher Policy Review # Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: New Pregnancy Assistance Fund Under Health Care Reform: An Analysis
- Author : Guttmacher Policy Review
- Release Date : January 22, 2010
- Genre: Family & Relationships,Books,Nonfiction,Professional & Technical,Law,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 60 KB
Description
In September, the Office of Adolescent Health within the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) announced the first round of grants to 17 states and tribes under a new Pregnancy Assistance Fund. The 10-year, $250 million competitive grant program is designed to help pregnant and parenting teens and women complete their education and gain access to health care, child care, family housing and other critical support. States may apply to use this money to create a network of support services for pregnant and parenting teens and college students. They may also direct grant money toward assistance for pregnant women who have experienced intimate partner violence, and for outreach and education campaigns to promote these resources. The program emerged during final negotiations over the health care reform legislation enacted in March 2010. As partisans argued over provisions to prohibit insurance coverage of abortion when government funds are involved (related article, page 2), Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops pressed for the fund's inclusion as part of the final legislation, characterizing it as a way to make it easier for vulnerable women to decide to carry their pregnancies to term. "For far too long, our focus on reducing the number of abortions has emphasized federal funding prohibitions," said Casey in a December 18, 2009, statement during Senate consideration of the health care reform bill. "But we must do more if we truly want to reduce the number of abortions in this country. The time has come for us to provide support and assistance to the most vulnerable of pregnant women. In the long run, supporting and empowering pregnant women is the best way to reduce the number of abortions." Although advocates on both sides of the abortion debate have since questioned whether it would in fact have any significant impact in reducing the U.S. abortion rate, the fund, combined with other pregnancy-related provisions in health care reform, could have an important beneficial impact in the lives of individual pregnant and parenting teens and women over the next decade.