Prevention First Act
2007-2008 Regular Session Senate S 21 & HR 819
Summary: The bill includes provisions to:
- Increase access to family planning
services through the national family planning
program (Title X) and allow states to expand Medicaid family planning
services to women with incomes up to 200 % of the federal poverty level. - Ensure that private health plans offer the same level of coverage for contraception as they do for other prescription drugs and services.
- Ensure that women who survive sexual assault receive factually accurate information about emergency contraception (EC) and access to EC upon request.
- Support state-level comprehensive sexuality education programs that include medically accurate information about abstinence, contraception, and disease prevention.
- Implement important public education initiatives about EC and its benefits and uses to women and medical providers.
- Enable competitive grants to public and private entities working to establish or expand teen pregnancy prevention programs.
- Require that all information provided about the use of contraception as part of any federally funded program is medically accurate and includes accurate information about the health benefits and failure rates of contraception
What You Should Know: The Prevention First Act is intended to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies, abortions and sexually transmitted infections in the United States by increasing access to information and services to make this goal a reality.
Primary Sponsor(s): Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) and Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY)
Introduction Date: 1/4/2007 in Senate and 2/5/07 in House.
Last Major Action: 1/4/2007. Referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
2/5/2007. Referred to the Ways & Means, Energy & Commerce, and Education & Labor Committees in House.