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Volume III, Number 29 / September 10, 1999
Moving toward the Responsible Choices Agenda
Goal:
Increase services that prevent unintended pregnancy by guaranteeing equity in insurance coverage for family planning.
Conferees Finish Work On Treasury and General Government Appropriations
On September 9th, the House/Senate conference approved the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act (H.R. 2490). The conference report includes the contraceptive equity language included in last year's bill without the onerous and convoluted restrictions that were included in the original House bill by Rep. Chris Smith (R- NJ). Insurers who participate in the Federal Employees' Health Benefits Program will be required to provide coverage for contraceptive drugs and devices in the same manner in which they provide coverage for other prescription drugs and devices. The conference report also continues the ban on coverage of abortions in the FEHBP except to save a woman's life or in cases or rape or incest.
Budget Ceiling Concerns Delay Action On Labor-HHS-Education Appropriation
Both the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Labor-HHS-Education postponed scheduled mark-ups of their respective appropriations bills because of problems finding enough funding under current budget ceiling requirements to adequately fund the bill. It is still unclear what amendments will be offered to restrict access to family planning services or in an attempt to destroy the program. Rep. Ernest Istook (R-OK) has said he will be offering an amendment to restrict minors' access to family planning services, but no other family planning opponents have gone public with their plans. At this point, the best message to provide to members is that they should support Title X at the President's requested $240 million funding level, and to do so without any damaging restrictions.
The funding problem came about because money was taken out of the discretionary spending sections of this bill in order to fund appropriations bills that passed earlier in the session. What currently is available for the bill is about $16 billion less than was appropriated last year. Senate Appropriations Chair Ted Stevens (R-AK) still says he hopes to have a bill passed by the full Senate by the end of the month. No new date for subcommittee mark-up has been scheduled in either House. The new federal budget year begins on October 1st.
House Judiciary Committee Delays Mark-Up Of Feticide Bill
The scheduled September 9th mark up of the so-called "Unborn Victims of Violence Act" (H.R. 2436) by the full House Judiciary Committee was postponed because the committee did not finish work on the bill designed to thwart Oregon's assisted suicide law. The committee will again focus on the assisted suicide legislation when it convenes on September 14th, and will proceed with the feticide bill once this bill is finished.
IN THE STATES - State Legislative Update
California Legislature Passes Contraceptive Equity Bill
On September 9th, the California House and Senate approved the "Women's Contraceptive Equity Act." This was the compromise bill worked out in conference after each house approved its own version. The bill requires insurers in the state to cover FDA-approved methods of contraception if they cover other prescription drugs and devices. There is a religious opt-out for religious groups that meet the IRS definition of "church," but only for their entities that serve primarily the members of the group (schools, churches) rather than the general public (hospitals). The bill passed the Assembly by a vote of 43-20 and the Senate by a vote of 24-11. It now goes to the governor. Once it finally reaches his desk, Gov. Gray Davis (D) will have until October 10th to sign it.
Oregon Health Department Experiments With Expansion Of Family Planning Services
The Oregon Health Division has received a two-year, $26 million grant that has allowed it to launch a pilot project to provide free family planning services to low-income women. The state will provide $3 million. The project is aimed at women who have incomes too high to qualify for Medicaid, but earn up to 185% of the federal poverty level. These women would receive free gynecological exams, contraceptives, pregnancy testing, counseling services and STI treatments. The services would be available at Planned Parenthood clinics and county health centers throughout the state.
Ban On So-Called "Partial Birth" Abortions Again Filed In Kansas
Spurred on by the story out of Arizona that a young girl who needed an abortion at 24 weeks reportedly being sent to Kansas for the procedure, abortion opponents in the Kansas legislature are again seeking to pass a law that would ban so-called "partial birth" abortions. In a story in the September 3rd edition of the Wichita Eagle, Sen. Karin Brownlee is reported to say, "For some of us, it is a rallying call. It's disturbing that Kansas is known for this type of business."
Sen. Nancey Harrington (R) introduced a bill that would ban abortions "in which the person performing the abortion partially vaginally delivers a living human being fetus before killing the infant and completing the delivery." The only exception to the ban would be to save the woman's life. "The state must erect an impenetrable wall against infanticide," the Eagle reports Harrington saying.
There currently is a law on the books banning so-called "partial birth" abortions. However, the state has interpreted the language of the exceptions to the ban to allow abortions if a woman's mental health were threatened and opponents want to eliminate that option.
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