Pregnant Women Support Act

Bill: 110-s-2407
Sponsor: Sen. Casey, Robert P., Jr. [D-PA]
Introduced: 2007-12-04 in the Senate
Policy area: Health
Subjects: Abortion
Adoption
Agriculture and Food
Authorization
Block grants
Breast feeding
Child nutrition
Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues
Civil actions and liability
Clinics
Cost of living adjustments
Counseling
Crime and Law Enforcement
Crimes against women
Criminal investigation
Damages
Day care
Discrimination in insurance
Discrimination in medical care
Down's syndrome
Dropouts
Economics and Public Finance
Education
Elementary and secondary education
Families
Family violence
Federal aid to child health services
Federal aid to education
Federal aid to health facilities
Finance and Financial Sector
Food stamps
Government Operations and Politics
Government paperwork
Government publicity
Health education
Health information systems
Health insurance
Health surveys
Hereditary diseases
Higher education
Homicide
Housing and Community Development
Imaging systems in medicine
Income tax
Indexing (Economic policy)
Infants
Informed consent (Medical law)
Maternal health services
Medically uninsured
Nurses
Parent and child
Physical examinations
Poor children
Pregnancy
Pregnant women
Public service advertising
Punitive damages
School health programs
Science, Technology, Communications
Secondary education
Social Welfare
Stalking
Student housing
Tax credits
Tax refunds
Taxation
Teenage pregnancy
Victims of crimes
Violence
WIC program
Welfare eligibility
Women

Summary:
action_date: 2007-12-04
text: 
Pregnant Women Support Act - Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to make grants to increase public awareness of resources available to pregnant women to carry their pregnancy to term and new parents.
 
 Amends the Public Health Service Act to allow the Secretary to make grants for the purchase of ultrasound equipment for examinations of pregnant women.
 
Amends the Public Health Service Act to prohibit a health insurance issuer offering individual coverage from imposing a preexisting condition exclusion or a waiting period or otherwise discriminating against a woman on the basis that she is pregnant.
 
Provides for continuation coverage for newborns.
 
Amends title XXI (State Children's Health Insurance Program) (SCHIP) of the Social Security Act to allow states to extend health care coverage to an unborn child. 
 
Requires health facilities that perform abortions to obtain informed consent from a pregnant woman seeking an abortion.
 
Provides for the collection and dissemination of information on Down syndrome and other prenatally diagnosed conditions.
 
Allows the Secretary to make grants to public institutions of higher education to establish and operate pregnant and parenting student services offices.
 
Requires the Secretary to provide for programs to work with pregnant or parenting teens to complete high school.
 
Authorizes grants for services to pregnant women who are victims of domestic violence, dating violence, or stalking. Requires states to require a pregnancy determination for homicide victims.
 
Requires group homes for pregnant and parenting women to provide counseling on adoption and parenting skills.
 
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to increase and make refundable the tax credit for adoption expenses. 
 
 Authorizes appropriations to carry out the special supplemental nutrition program for women, infants, and children (WIC program).
 
Amends the Food Stamp Act of 1977 to increase the eligibility threshold for food stamps.
 
Authorizes appropriations to carry out the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990.
 
 Authorizes grants to provide to eligible mothers education on the health needs of their infants through visits to their homes by registered nurses.
 
Authorizes grants for collecting and reporting abortion surveillance data.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2007-12-13
text: Star Print ordered on on the bill.
action_date: 2007-12-04
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
action_date: 2007-12-04
text: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S14743-14745)
action_date: 2007-12-04
text: Introduced in Senate