On the recordSeptember 12, 2017
This amendment cuts $5 million from the account that funds, mind you, Head Start, Runaway and Homeless Youth grants, and the Community Services Block Grant, among other critical programs, and uses it to provide $5 million in new funding for the Infant Adoption Awareness Training program. Now, this program did not receive funding in fiscal year `17. Women should have access to all options when considering the impacts of an unintended pregnancy, of which one is adoption. But we should not ignore the irreplaceable role of preventing unintended pregnancy by providing education and health services. The underlying bill limits women's access to care by prohibiting funding to the Title X Family Planning program, a program specifically created to ensure women have access to high-quality family planning services to prevent unintended pregnancies and access reproductive care services. By denying women access to comprehensive family planning and preventative health services, the bill would have a devastating impact on women and families, especially low-income women and women in rural communities. In 2014, Title X Family Planning centers helped women avert 904,000-- that is 904,000--unintended pregnancies. Without the services provided by these Title X clinics, the rates of unintended pregnancy in the United States, unplanned birth and abortion, each would have been 33 percent higher, and the teen pregnancy rate would have been 30 percent higher.…
