Family planning and adoption promotion: new proposals, long-standing issues.

Guttmacher Rep Public Policy 2(5):1-3, 13 (1999) PMID 12349385

This paper sheds lights on long-standing issues and new proposals on family planning and adoption promotion. The spate of bills promoting adoption in Title X family planning clinics and federally funded health centers by opponents of family planning programs raise a significant concern in the family planning community. This concern gave rise to questions on the nature of adoption counseling that should be offered to pregnant women in government-funded programs and the extent to which family planning programs should assume the duties of adoption agencies. Budgetary constraints also raise a serious question on the degree to which family planning funds should be rechanneled to serve this purpose. One more immediate issue, however, is the fact that two of the proposed strategies deny women facing pregnancy crisis the right to informed decision on their options by preventing family planning providers to discuss on abortion. Other measures set include the revival of the abortion "gag rule" previously imposed by the Reagan and Bush administrations and promoting a program of direct federal subsidy to organizations which provide counseling to women provided that these organizations shall provide full information on pregnancy options.