For Immediate Release:	January 27, 2009
For More Information:	Allison Conyers, National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, aconyers@nfprha.org, 202-293-3114, ext. 204
Sponsor Organization:	National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association
Statement by Mary Jane Gallagher, President & CEO, National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association
01/27/2009 - If our elected officials choose to sacrifice family planning services and cut them out of the stimulus bill it will put millions of American families at risk. Family planners are disappointed by Republican efforts to tear this crucial investment out of the stimulus bill. On Sunday Minority Leader Boehner asked, "How you can spend hundreds of millions of dollars on contraceptives, how does that stimulate the economy?" The answer is that funding for family planning services is a critical investment in our nation's health care safety net. States with expanded family planning services allow providers to hire new staff and expand clinic hours--creating jobs and serving additional patients. Funding for family planning services--counseling, contraception, sex education and preventive health services--makes sense. Every $1 spent on publicly funded family planning saves $4 in state and federal dollars. As employers lay off staff and cut employees' benefits, Americans increasingly rely on government health programs to meet their critical needs including their ability to plan their families. It is necessary that working families are able to access this essential component of basic health care. Americans are counting on the Obama Administration and every member of Congress to make family planning a priority. Ensuring access to health care is a critical part of the stimulus bill and an important provision that we cannot afford to discard.