[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 81 (Wednesday, June 11, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5546-S5547]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      BIRTH DEFECTS PREVENTION ACT

 Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, vitamin supplements containing the B 
vitamin folic acid, have been proven to prevent common and disabling 
birth defects, including spina bifida and anencephaly, if taken daily 
before and in the early days after conception. This vitamin could 
prevent six to nine cases of these birth defects per day, saving $245 
million per year in the United States.
  On June 10, 1997, the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation 
released a new nationwide survey which shows that while more American 
women of childbearing age have heard of folic acid, the proportion of 
women actually taking a multivitamin on a daily basis remains low. Only 
32 percent of women ages 18 to 45 take a daily multivitamin containing 
folic acid.
  Awareness of folic acid jumped 14 percentages points over the 2-year 
period, from 52 percent of women in 1995 to 66 percent in 1997. 
However, women under age 25 are the least likely to consume vitamins 
daily, with only 23 percent reporting that they do so, and this age 
group accounts for 39 percent of all births in the United States. It is 
because of these statistics that I encourage my colleagues to vote for 
S. 419, the Birth Defects Prevention Act of 1997.
  This legislation would establish a national birth defects 
surveillance, research, and prevention system. This

[[Page S5547]]

system would include research projects for the prevention of neural 
tube defects, one-half of which could be prevented if women of child 
bearing age consumed a small amount of folic acid daily. In addition, 
this legislation would set up public education programs to teach more 
women about the importance of folic acid to the health of their 
children.
  And so together with the March of Dimes I encourage my colleagues to 
pass this important legislation.

                          ____________________