Power to Decide Encouraged By Bi-Partisan Funding of Key Programs

(Washington, D.C.) — Early this morning, Congress passed a spending package that includes funding for key programs which support young people’s power to decide if, when, and under what circumstances to become pregnant. Specifically, the bi-partisan spending measure does the following:

• Extends funding for the Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) Program and the Title X Family Planning Program through March 23 at their current funding levels.
• Extends funding for the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) through FY 2019 at $75 million annually and funding for the state Sexual Risk Avoidance Education, with some programmatic changes, through FY 2019 at $75 million annually.
• The spending measure also includes multi-year funding for community health centers, the Maternal Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program, and provides key extensions of important health programs.

The bill also includes a broader budget deal that paves the way for Congress to finally finish its work on appropriations for fiscal year 2018.

“Now that this budget deal is in place, congressional appropriators will be negotiating final spending levels for the TPP Program and Title X,” said Ginny Ehrlich, Chief Executive Officer, Power to Decide. “The TPP Program and Title X make critical contributions to ensuring that young people have the information, access and opportunity to decide if, when, and under what circumstances to become pregnant. We urge Congress to fully fund these programs, and to ensure that they are administered in the same high quality manner as they have been in the past. These programs help to ensure that hundreds of thousands of young people receive quality sex education and that millions of women, especially those in need, can continue to access high quality contraceptive care and supplies.”

Recently, Power to Decide released new analysis showing that as a result of over two decades of investments made in prevention programs and services, unplanned pregnancies and birth rates among teens in the U.S. declined significantly, resulting in public savings of $4.4 billion in 2015 alone.

“As our recent study indicates, investments in access to contraception and quality sex education are not only beneficial to young people, but also result in a positive return on investment and saves taxpayers billions of dollars annually. We are encouraged that Congress has provided funding, which will allow the federal government to play a key role in ongoing efforts to ensure that all young people have the power to decide if, when and under what circumstances to become pregnant,” concluded Ehrlich.

Power to Decide is a private, non-partisan, non-profit organization that works to ensure all people—no matter who they are, where they live, or what their economic status might be—have the power to decide if, when, and under what circumstances to get pregnant. Please visit us at www.PowerToDecide.org or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.