On Monday, President Obama rolled out his plan for the next year’s federal budget. The budget plan includes two specific gains in the area of women’s reproductive health care.
Obama’s proposed budget strikes the ban that prohibits the District of Columbia from using locally raised funds to cover abortions for low-income women. All 50 states currently have the power to make decisions about whether or not they want to decide to use state funds to cover abortion care for Medicaid eligible residents. Washington D.C. does not have that power. This abortion coverage ban has been in place since 1996. Back in 2009, Congress accepted President Obama’s proposal to lift this ban – a measure he included in his FY 2010 budget. The D.C. abortion coverage ban was reinstated in 2010. You can read more about this restrictive ban here.
The budget also increases funding for Title X, which provides family-planning services and preventive health care for low-income, under-insured and uninsured individuals. You can read more about the Title X family planning program here.
You can read more about the status of reproductive health care in our federal budget on the national ACLU blog. After you read the blog, you should sign this petition asking Congress to protect women's health care and to stop interfering with women's health care decisions.
