Reviewing the facts about the Prevention First Act

What is the Prevention First Act?

The Prevention First Act has several components, all of which would fund programs that are promoted by Planned Parenthood and would put millions more of our tax dollars into PP’s coffers. These components include: 

• Making Title X (family planning) a permanent program and funding it at $700 million or more. Since its inception in 1970, Title X of the Health and Human Services Act has always been a major funding source for PP. However, Title X is not a permanent program and must be reauthorized every year. Title X was funded at $300 million for fiscal year 2008. PP receives about 25 percent of the total or $75 million. Thus, the PFA would more than double the tax dollars given to PP ($175 million) by this one program. It would also make Title X a permanent program. 

• Mandating that health insurance programs that cover prescriptions also cover abortifacient contraceptives. The PFA would take away the ability of consumers and insurance companies to seek the coverage they want and would force every insurance plan that covers prescription drugs to pay for birth control.

• Creating a government program to push abortifacient “emergency contraception.” The PFA would create a government-funded five-year “educational” program to promote emergency contraception and drive even more Plan B business to PP. 

• Taking all federal money away from any hospital that refuses to administer emergency contraception (an abortifacient), to rape victims. In addition, it would require that every hospital, even Catholic, Baptist and others opposed to abortion for religious reasons, MUST provide patients with emergency contraception or lose all of their federal funding. 

• Creating additional massive government funding for PP-style sex education programs (abstinence-only programs are specifically excluded from funding). Under the subprogram named “At-Risk Communities Teen Pregnancy Prevention Act,” the PFA would create a program to conduct research and educational sessions for the purpose of reducing teen pregnancy. All kinds of organizations (e.g. Planned Parenthood) would receive taxpayer funds, and all kinds of theories and ways of preventing teen pregnancy could be researched and taught EXCEPT abstinence-only programs.

• Permanently including family planning services as part of the Medicaid program. The Medicaid program was never intended to pay for family planning services. Yet, beginning in the 1990s, states started applying for Medicaid waivers to allow them to add family planning for Medicaid-eligible recipients. The federal government has approved these waivers, and their approval must be renewed, on a state-by-state basis, every five years. Because of the waivers, Medicaid is now the largest single program providing taxpayer money for PP. The PFA would do away with the need for waivers and write family planning services permanently into Medicaid, thereby opening the floodgates of taxpayer funding for PP even wider.

What is the status of the Prevention First Act?
It is important to note that the election ushers in a new Congress in January. The current Congress, the 110th Congress, will cease to exist at the end of this year. In January, the 111th Congress will begin, and all of the newly elected members of the House and Senate will be part of the 111th Congress. All existing bills must be re-introduced in the new Congress and assigned new numbers, and the legislative process for each of them will start “from scratch.”  The PFA will have to be introduced once more. Under normal circumstances, it would take months for it to be voted on, but they could be fast-tracked.

What does Planned Parenthood say about the Prevention First Act?
Here is the statement by Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, on February 5, 2007, when the Prevention First Act was introduced in the House:

“Today’s introduction of the Prevention First Act signals a real step forward for health care in America. Currently, more than 17 million women in the U.S. need publicly funded family planning services, and there is not enough funding to meet the need. Nearly 750,000 teenagers in the U.S. will become pregnant this year. Prevention is the key to building strong, healthy families, and the Prevention First Act will help women and couples plan their families, plan their futures, and plan parenthood by expanding access to critically needed family planning education and reproductive health care services.”

Planned Parenthood also pushing PFA in states
Planned Parenthood has mentioned its intent to push PFA not only at the federal level, but also at the state level. A typical state bill seeks to do the following: 

• Force insurance companies to cover birth control if they cover other prescriptions;

• Mandate that every hospital in the state provide emergency contraception to rape victims and tell the victims that emergency contraception does not cause an abortion;

• Replace abstinence-only sex ed with programs that give equal time to the use of birth control and don’t tell children to save sex for marriage;

• Put taxpayer money into “teen pregnancy prevention” programs;

• Do away with the right of pharmacies and/or pharmacists to refuse to sell products that conflict with their religious beliefs.

What can you do?
Despite the fact that Obama is actively supporting this horrible bill and the Democratic Party is firmly in control of the both chambers of the United States Congress, passage of this bill is not inevitable. We have spoken with a number of pro-life members of Congress and their staffs, and they believe that the Prevention First Act can be stopped. But, in order to do so, it will take an active campaign of pro-lifers across the country. Here is what you can do:

1. Contact your members of Congress and let them know how you feel about the Prevention First Act.

2. Watch for updates in future ALL publications. We will let you know as soon as the bills are introduced in the next Congress and give you the correct bill numbers.

3. Monitor the activity in your state and take action to prevent a state PFA from passing.

Because the Prevention First Act aims to both increase funding to Title X and to make the Title X program permanent, and because Title X is the second largest source of government funding for Planned Parenthood, we’ll begin a series on Title X itself in next week’s ALL Associate Newsletter. Watch this space!

News
 

“Scheme to cover up a fraud”
For years, Planned Parenthood of San Diego and other affiliates elsewhere in the state had been over-billing the government by millions of dollars for contraceptives purchased at deep discounts – a policy specifically prohibited by state and federal regulations governing the program, called FPACT – “Family Planning, Access, Care and Treatment.” Rules for the program, jointly funded with state and federal funds, specifically required that providers of services under the program be reimbursed only for the cost of acquiring the contraceptives, but Planned Parenthood had been billing far in excess of cost, in some instances more than 20 times what they paid. http://www.calcatholic.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?id=e9f8ba3c-2f62-48ff-bb21-073f9774e149

Planned Parenthood funds held by city council
Funding for eight youth programs hit a snag Tuesday as the inclusion of a Planned Parenthood-run program drew complaints from those who oppose the group’s educational tactics and abortion services. http://www.caller.com/news/2008/nov/18/planned-parenthood-funds-held/?partner=yahoo_headlines

Terri-Schiavo-like disabled woman allowed to live after parents reconcile
A disabled woman’s mother has reconciled with her ex-husband after having fought to remove her daughter’s feeding tube, and after state legislation rescued the woman from death by dehydration. The woman’s mother now confesses that her daughter should be able to live. http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/nov/08112001.html

Adult stem cells used to create “living bandage” for knee injuries
A team of scientists at Bristol University has created a living “bandage” from adult stem cells that can be used to heal common sport injuries. http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/nov/08111902.html

Doctors transplant windpipe with tissue from patient’s own stem cells
Doctors have given a woman a new windpipe with tissue grown from her own stem cells, eliminating the need for anti-rejection drugs. “This technique has great promise,” said Dr. Eric Genden, who did a similar transplant in 2005 at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081119/D94HLK301.html 

Major CDC study finds two to four times more birth defects from in vitro fertilizations
Infants conceived with Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) are two to four times more likely to have certain types of birth defects than children conceived naturally, according to a study by the CDC. The report, “Assisted Reproductive Technology and Major Structural Birth Defects, United States,” was released in the journal Human Reproduction.
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/nov/08111804.html
 

Closing Thought
Let no one have contempt for your youth, but set an example for those who believe, in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity.

1 Timothy 4:12