By the 2020 Mom Policy Team

In early December, our policy team worked with a coalition of non-profit partners and submitted the following letter to Congressional appropriations leaders, urging them to prioritize contraception care and safe motherhood. This is a priority for 2020 Mom and our coalition partners given the state of reduced availability of abortions in the United States and the link between unintended pregnancies and higher rates of poor mental health outcomes.

December 6, 2022

Dear Chairwoman DeLauro, Chairman Leahy, Ranking Member Granger, and Vice Chairman Shelby:

We support significant funding increases for programs addressing women’s reproductive health and maternal mortality. Specifically, we support additional investments that would allow women access to a full range of highly effective contraceptive methods, provide workforce training in patient-centered contraceptive care, and help prevent serious obstetric complications such as postpartum hemorrhage.

This year we have been pleased that both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees included language and increased funding in the FY 2023 House Committee report and Senate draft Committee report addressing several issues of interest to our organizations.

As Congress works to complete the appropriations process for fiscal year (FY) 2023, we respectfully request that Congress include the following program funding levels:

House Position:
Integrating High-Quality Contraceptive Care. — The Committee includes $25,000,000 within the total for Health Centers to support grants for training and quality improvement efforts to make available patient-centered contraceptive care within health center primary care settings. (H.R. 117-403, pg. 44)

Senate Position:
Safe Motherhood/Infant Health. — The Committee recommendation builds on the commitment made in the fiscal year 2022 bill by providing an increase of $81,000,000 for this portfolio of programs to improve the health of pregnant and postpartum individuals and their babies, including to reduce disparities in maternal and infant health outcomes. (Draft Explanatory Statement for DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS BILL, 2023, pg. 84-85)

We appreciate the budget constraints appropriators face and thank you for your consideration of these requests.

Sincerely,

2020 Mom
Alliance for Women’s Health & Prevention
Black Women’s Health Imperative
Every Mother Counts
HealthyWomen
Leauge of United Latin America Citizens
MANA, A National Latina Organization
Mom Congress
National Association of Hispanic Nurses
National Consumers League
Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health
Transcultural Nursing Society

Logos of the coalition of non-profit partners