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For Immediate Release: Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Contact: Ranit Schmelzer or Adrienne Ammerman, 202-588-5180
American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan Addresses Women’s Economic Needs
NWLC Disappointed in Lack of Vital Family Planning Funding
(Washington, DC) Passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is critical if women and their families are going to recover from the worsening economy, the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) said today.
“The Act provides help our economy – and women and families – need,” stated Nancy Duff Campbell, Co-President of NWLC. “In addition to much-needed investments in physical infrastructure, it invests in services that build human capital, including health care, education, child care, Head Start, job training, and child support – investments which also serve to preserve and create jobs in fields currently dominated by women.”
The Act increases assistance for those in need – overwhelmingly women and children – by eliminating barriers to unemployment insurance coverage for women and extending unemployment benefits; expanding nutrition, energy, and housing assistance and income supports; and preserving access to vital health services by preventing cuts to Medicaid and helping jobless workers access health insurance coverage.
The Act also increases investments in education and job training programs, and includes important tax measures that will help low- and middle-income families. Targeting help to people who are struggling to meet immediate needs is one of the most effective ways to get money into the economy quickly and create jobs.
However, in a disappointing move, the economic recovery package will not include a provision to make it easier for states to make family planning services more accessible and affordable to the millions of women and families who depend on them. The Medicaid Family Planning State Option would have allowed states to expand Medicaid eligibility for family planning services without having to obtain a federal waiver.
The provision would save the federal government and the states hundreds of millions of dollars that could have been used to cover some other costs incurred in the Act. It would also give women and their families access to contraception at a time when they face severe economic strain in securing and holding jobs.
“The Medicaid Family Planning State Option fully belonged in the economic recovery package,” stated Marcia D. Greenberger, Co-President of NWLC. “The Republican leadership opposition to the provision shows how out of touch they are with what it takes to ensure the economic survival of working women and their families.”
The National Women’s Law Center expects the Obama Administration to support the Medicaid Family Planning State Option, and calls on Congress to act quickly to put this provision in place.
NWLC’s analysis of how the Act helps women and families is available here: www.nwlc.org/pdf/AmericanRecoveryReinvestmentActJan09.pdf.
NWLC’s fact sheet “Expand Eligibility for Family Planning Services in
the Economic Recovery Package” is available here: http://www.nwlc.org/pdf/medicaideconomicstimulus09.pdf
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