Support the Prevention First Act

89% of U.S. adults favor more access to birth control options

81% agreed that those options should not be limited by income¹.

The Prevention First Act (H.R. 1709/S.20) introduced in the 109th Congress by Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) and Representative Louise Slaughter (D-NY) is an omnibus family planning initiative that expands access to preventive health care services and education programs to help reduce unintended pregnancy, prevent the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), reduce the need for abortion, and improve women’s health — all while saving scarce public health dollars.

The Prevention First Act will

• Increase access to family planning services by increasing funds to Title X clinics that help women prevent unintended pregnancies, reduce the number of abortions, lower rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV, and detect breast and cervical cancer at its earliest stages.
  
  
• Eliminate cost barriers for poor and low-income women who cannot afford to purchase contraceptive services. Public health programs like Medicaid and Title X provide high-quality family planning services and other preventive health care to underinsured or uninsured individuals who may otherwise lack access to health care. Yet these programs are struggling to meet the growing demand for subsidized family planning services without corresponding increases in funding.
  
  
• Ensure equity in prescription insurance and contraceptive coverage by requiring private health plans to offer the same level of coverage for contraception as they do for other prescription drugs and services.
  
  
• Provide sexual assault victims medically accurate information and access to emergency contraception (EC). Professional and widely respected organizations such as the American Public Health Association (APHA), American Medical Association (AMA), American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) agree that EC should be offered to all victims of sexual assault if they are at risk of pregnancy.
  
  
• Reduce the risk of unintended pregnancy by improving awareness about Emergency Contraception (EC). EC is an essential component of comprehensive health care that should be easily accessible to all women, including those who have experienced contraceptive failure, those who have had unprotected intercourse, and those who have been sexually assaulted.
  
  
• Protect teens against infection and unintended pregnancy. The bill would provide $20 million in annual funding for competitive grants to public and private entities to establish or expand teen pregnancy prevention programs.

¹  Wall Street Journal Online/Harris Interactive health care poll published 06/20/06