Ensuring healthy futures

State officials stopped by Greenbelt yesterday to educate local communities about a new law that will grant thousands of low-income women access to reproductive health care and family-planning services.

Under the Family Planning Works Act — which Gov. Martin O'Malley signed into law in May — nearly 35,000 underprivileged women across the state will be eligible to receive pregnancy counseling, contraception, pelvic exams and screenings for breast and reproductive cancer and sexually transmitted diseases free of charge starting Jan. 1. Since the state ranks 10th in the nation in infant mortality and 14th in low birthweights, county and state officials said this law will be instrumental in creating healthier generations of mothers and their children.

Del. Heather Mizeur (D-Montgomery), one of the bill's sponsors, held a press conference about the act in Greenbelt yesterday because Prince George's County is one of the three areas in the state with the most women- and infant-health needs. The next stops are Baltimore City and the Eastern Shore, according to Mizeur.

Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker helped host yesterday's event and pledged his support for reversing these statistics.

"What [Baker] said was, ‘Health care and access to health care and outreach of access is not second tier in our county,'" said Scott Peterson, Baker's spokesman. "This is also important to improving education, because it means healthier kids and healthier babies which translate into healthier students. It is all connected."

While the present state policy only extends free family planning services under Medicaid after a woman has already had her first child, all women who earn below $22,000 a year will be eligible for these services.

Expanding health-care access among low-income women would result in fewer unwanted pregnancies and birth, meaning fewer abortions and a projected $20 to $40 million in savings for the state, Mizeur said.

"Part of the problem is we haven't done enough to empower women to have babies when they're ready to and encourage women to have planned pregnancies to break this cycle of poverty and stay in college and finish their degrees and stay in the workforce," Mizeur said. "It's truly a win-win-win."

And Mizeur said students can also benefit from access to family planning services under this law if they declare their own income rather than their parents'.

"Any woman in college can qualify for this service," Mizeur said.

Health services administration professor Karoline Mortensen, who had been following the bill closely since it was first introduced, said access to this health care for those at or below 200 percent of the poverty level is critical not only to the mothers but to their families as a whole.

"Women tend to be the primary caretakers in the household," Mortensen said. "If you're not having an annual Pap smear done, you may have cervical cancer and not know it and delaying things you need down the road. Some families cannot afford to have their mother in the hospital."

But Mortensen said while having these services available is an important initiative, there are numerous other factors that play into combating health issues, including maternal stress and the prevalence of low-income minority populations in the state.

"It's difficult to chart out exactly what will happen," she said. "Medicaid is just one small part."

Regardless of these challenges, Mizeur said spreading awareness of the act is vital to its success.

"It's not enough to pass a good law," Mizeur said. "We are working hard and spreading the word so all women who are qualified know they have access to this service."

villanueva@umdbk.com