U.S. Senate Rejects Budget Amendment That Would Have Increased Funding for Teen Pregnancy Prevention, Family Planning

Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 20 Mar 2005 - 0:00 PDT

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The US Senate on Thursday defeated 53-47 a proposed amendment to the fiscal year 2006 budget resolution... (S Con Res 18) that would have increased funding for family planning programs, teen pregnancy programs and emergency contraception education and expanded health insurance coverage of prescription contraceptives, Reuters reports (Kenen, Reuters, 3/17). The amendment, sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), would have increased by $100 million funding for Title X programs -- which include family planning, teen pregnancy and emergency contraception -- and required private health insurance plans that provide prescription drug coverage to also cover FDA-approved prescription contraceptives, according to CQ Today (Swindell, CQ Today, 3/17). According to Reid, the $100 million would have come from closing "corporate loopholes" in the federal tax code (Struglinski, Las Vegas Sun, 3/17). Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, said the amendment would have blocked funding to abstinence-only sex education programs. He added that requiring more insurance coverage of contraceptives "would increase the cost of insurance and create more uninsured individuals in this country today" (Reuters, 3/17).

Similar Stand-Alone Legislation
Although the amendment failed, Reid and Rodham Clinton have sponsored similar stand-alone legislation (S 20), according to CQ Today (CQ Today, 3/17). Rodham Clinton said the legislation is part of Senate Democrats' "effort to find common ground" on the issue of abortion, adding that about half of the six million pregnancies that occur each year in the United States are unintended, resulting in about 1.3 million abortions, Reuters reports (Reuters, 3/17). "[W]e think contraception should be available to women who need it so that abortion will become safe, legal and rare," Rodham Clinton said (CQ Today, 3/17). Reid added, "I think there is little we can do to take away the emotion of that issue (abortion), but what we can do is find common ground" (Las Vegas Sun, 3/17).

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