Power to Decide Calls on Congress to do More to Promote and Protect Reproductive Health
WASHINGTON — Yesterday, the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee passed its FY 2024 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education (LHHS) Appropriations bill, which maintains level funding for key programs that provide information and access to reproductive health care. The bill provides $286.5 million for the Title X family Planning Program and $101 million for the Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) Program. It also includes the Hyde amendment, which bars federal Medicaid dollars from covering abortion care. In contrast, the U.S. House LHHS Subcommittee advanced a bill earlier this month, that eliminates Title X and the TPP Program while adding extreme policy riders that would severely harm the most vulnerable among us.
Power to Decide CEO Raegan McDonald-Mosley, MD, MPH, issued the following statement in response:
“Power to Decide appreciates the Senate Appropriations Committee’s bipartisan recognition of the critical role of publicly funded family planning services and evidence-based sexual health education. However, as our nation faces a crisis in access to reproductive health care and information, this bill falls far short of meeting the needs of people who are already struggling, and maintains harmful restrictions which put abortion care further out of reach for them.
“As a practicing OBGYN, I see firsthand that access to the full range of reproductive health services is essential for the well-being of my patients, their families and their communities. Everyone — no matter who they are or where they live — should have the resources and right to decide if, when and under what circumstances to get pregnant and have a child.
“Amid the ever-increasing attacks on and mounting obstacles to reproductive health care, status quo funding and continued restrictions simply does not meet the moment. We call on Congress to do more to address this crisis.”
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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 or have a child.
