Sec. 2. Purpose; findings
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This Act seeks to achieve a consistent standard of informing newly pregnant women of all services and support that are available to them and to ensure that such women are not abandoned. Women at the point of learning about an unplanned pregnancy often ask themselves what society will to do support them. A myriad of services and support is available, but often pregnant women, and even providers, are unaware of such services and support. The purpose of this Act is to ensure that newly pregnant women are aware of all the services and support that are available to them and this Act furthers the authority to make specialized grants in this regard.
The Congress finds as follows: Many women do not know where to turn for available assistance during pregnancy, childbirth, and child-rearing, particularly when facing financial, social, emotional, and other life challenges. Women who are pregnant and in fear of being abandoned during pregnancy should have access to available local, State, and Federal governmental, as well as civil society, pregnancy and parenting resources. In a study of how women in the United States face challenging circumstances during pregnancy that affect a woman’s willingness to carry a child to term, research shows that of women who do not carry their child to term— 44 percent are college-aged; 61 percent have at least one child; 69 percent are facing economic challenges; 75 percent feel they cannot afford a child; and 75 percent say that having a baby would interfere with work, school, or the ability to care for other dependents.
When a woman discovers she is pregnant while facing physical, financial, social, emotional, and other life challenges, the people around her can help to mitigate anxiety in the face of uncertainty by providing practical support with day-to-day needs associated with pregnancy, birth, and motherhood, particularly in the context of her concerns about— family, paternity, and community support during pregnancy and following the birth of a child or children; securing opportunities that a woman may require, including the completion of education that leads to employment; and workplaces that accommodate pregnant and parenting women.
Often pregnant women are unaware of the support that may be available to them from private and public sources at the local, State, and national levels.