Providing Better Family Planning in Maryland

Family planning works

Family planning services - including pelvic exams; screenings for cancer, high blood pressure and diabetes; testing for sexually-transmitted infections; pregnancy counseling; and, when appropriate, contraception - are a vitally important component of women's overall health. Better yet, studies have also shown that when a woman delays motherhood until she and her partner are ready to welcome a child into the world, their baby will be born healthier. Family planning works - plain and simple.

Family planning isn't working like it should in Maryland

Family planning works well, but not in Maryland. To protect the health of mothers and babies, our state provides coverage for prenatal, birthing and neonatal care to low- and moderate-income women and their newborns. For each pregnancy whose costs are paid for by the state, Maryland spends nearly $20,000. But when it comes to family planning services, we have only offered coverage to women who have already had their first child. The time to plan a family, of course, is before a family is begun.

The implications of these policies are obvious: more unplanned pregnancies, more abortions, and some of the worst rates of low-birth-weight babies and infant mortality in the nation. Our budget also takes a hit: instead of funding for low-cost family planning services, we're paying for thousands of unintended births.

Our solution

This year, we introduced and passed the Family Planning Works Act to bring a little common sense to this corner of our state's health care policy. According to estimates produced by the Guttmacher Institute, this legislation - by providing family planning services to 33,000 low- and moderate-income women - will result in 7,980 fewer unintended pregancies and 2,650 fewer abortions per year in our state. It will also save Maryland as much as $39.5 million per year. Providing better family planning, improving women's and infants' health, and saving tens of millions of dollars? It's not magic - it's family planning.

Even better, the Family Planning Works Act is solidly bipartisan. Republican Delegates Mike Smigiel, Nic Kipke and Bob Costa joined more than thirty Democrats in co-sponsoring the legislation.

Find out more about the Maryland Family Planning Program or call the Medical Assistance Hotline at 1-800-456-8900.  Spread the word so women in your community can access the services they need to plan for and build strong families.

See coverage of our work in the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun, the Washington Examiner, the Gazette, and the Diamondback.  Watch a WJZ special report on the Family Planning Works Act here: