Prevention: A Common Sense Goal
Practical, sensible, and moderate 

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Representatives Louise Slaughter and Diana DeGette have introduced the Prevention First Act, a legislative package that should be a top priority for all Americans who want to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies in the United States. The bill, S. 21 in the Senate and H.R. 819 in the House, addresses the high rate of unintended pregnancy by increasing access to contraceptives, improving awareness about emergency contraception, as well as the need for emergency contraception for rape victims, and ensiring medically-accurate information about sexuality is taught to young people.

Elements of the Prevention First Act include:

• Increase Funding for the National Family Planning Program (Title X):  Title X provides high-quality preventive health care to low income individuals who may otherwise lack access to health care.  Every year, Title X services prevent approximately one million unintended pregnancies, nearly half of which would end in abortion.  This critical safety net program is grossly underfunded despite the fact that the health care services financed by Title X improve women’s health.  The bill would increase the amount of money authorized for Title X.
  
  
• Expand Medicaid Family Planning Services:  A low income woman is four times as likely to have an unintended pregnancy, five times as likely to have an unintended birth and more than four times as likely to have an abortion as her higher-income counterpart. This bill will strengthen Medicaid coverage of family planning services, by clarifying and ensuring that Medicaid coverage for family planning services remain accessible to low-income women.  It will also amend the Medicaid statute to require states to extend coverage for family planning services and supplies to women who would be entitled to Medicaid-funded prenatal, labor, delivery and postpartum care if they became pregnant.
  
  
•  End Insurance Discrimination Against Women: Women of reproductive age pay 68% more in out-of-pocket costs for health care services than do men of the same age.  Expenses related to reproductive health account for much of this difference.  The bill requires private health plans to cover FDA-approved prescription contraceptives and related medical services to the same extent that they cover prescription drugs and other outpatient medical services.
  
  
• Improve Awareness about Emergency Contraception (EC): Greater awareness of EC could substantially reduce the staggering number of unintended pregnancies.  Approved for use by the FDA, EC prevents pregnancy and cannot interrupt or disrupt an established pregnancy.  A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association confirms that easier access to EC does not increase sexual risk-taking or STDs.  The bill provides funding to implement important public education initiatives about emergency contraception (EC) and its benefits and uses to both women and medical providers.
  
  
• Provide Compassionate Assistance for Rape Victims: Women who suffer sexual assault should not have to face the additional trauma of an unwanted pregnancy.  Approximately 300,000 women are reported raped each year in the US and nearly 25,000 victims of rape will become pregnant as a result.  The bill requires that hospitals receiving federal funds promptly provide EC upon patient request, in addition to medically, factually accurate and unbiased written and oral information about EC to women who survive sexual assault.
  
  
• Reduce Teen Pregnancy: Thirty-four percent of young women become pregnant at least once before they reach the age of 20 -- about 820,000 pregnancies a year. Eight in ten of these pregnancies are unintended.  The bill would provide funding for grants to public and private entities to establish or expand teen pregnancy prevention programs and for comprehensive sexuality education.
  
  
• Ensure that Federally -Funded Programs Provide Medically Accurate Information:  Despite overwhelming public support for comprehensive sex education that includes medically accurate information about contraception and STDs, government-funded abstinence-only programs are precluded from discussing contraception except to talk about failure rates.  A December 2004 review of federally-funded abstinence-only programs found that many federally funded abstinence-only programs distort public health data and misrepresent the effectiveness of contraception.  The bill ensures that information provided about the use of contraception as part of any federally funded sex education, family life education, abstinence education, comprehensive health education or character education is medically accurate and shall include the health benefits and failure rates of such use.
  
  
• Provide Funding for Comprehensive Sexuality Education
  Currently, there is no federal funding stream to support responsible, comprehensive sexuality education in schools. The Real Education About Life Act would include science-based, medically accurate, and age appropriate public health information about both abstinence and also contraception. In addition to supporting healthy adolescent development, the REAL act would provide assistance to reduce teen pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, and other sexually transmitted diseases.

The Religious Coalition will continue to emphasize prevention, education, counseling, and respect for all points of view, while holding fast on our commitments to reproductive choice and religious freedom.

May 5, 2008