[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 89 (Thursday, June 24, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1224]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    POPULATION CONNECTION'S 2004 ``KID-FRIENDLY CITIES REPORT CARD''

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. TAMMY BALDWIN

                              of wisconsin

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 23, 2004

  Ms. BALDWIN. Mr. Speaker, last week Population Connection released 
its 2004 Kid-Friendly Cities Report Card. This report rates cities in 
terms of the quality of life they provide for children by using data in 
sixteen comprehensive areas including health care, education, and 
community.
  I am proud that Madison, my hometown, ranked third among large cities 
in America in terms of providing a high quality of life for children. 
We scored very highly in the education and community categories. The 
people of Madison deserve to feel proud of the quality of life we 
provide for the children in our city.
  There is much good news for Madison in this report, but there's much 
more to be done. We must remember that far too many children in our 
city and, indeed, across America are being left behind. I applaud 
Population Connection for their efforts in working hard to achieve the 
day that every city is kid-friendly, the day that every kid can look 
forward to a future that offers unlimited opportunity. This report from 
Population Connection shows us the map to get there. And while cities 
and states can do a lot on their own, many of the problems that young 
people face are national problems that require national solutions.
  The first step is to get serious about reducing teen pregnancy. In 
Madison, like in much of America, this is one of the most significant 
challenges we face. We should act to ensure that not one more federal 
penny is spent on ineffective programs, like ``abstinence-only'' 
programs that leave kids simply uninformed at best and woefully ill-
equipped for real-life decision-making at worst. Such programs have 
been shown to have little to no impact on the likelihood that young 
people will be sexually active, but they do reduce the chance that 
young people will use contraceptives when they do have sex, leading to 
unintended pregnancy and exposure to sexually transmitted infections. 
Let's put our money into more effective, more worthy programs that can 
be shown to have a real impact on the lives of young people.
  Also, we should act to ensure that every woman, every mother, has 
access to affordable reproductive health care, family planning and 
effective contraceptives. Too often, contraceptives are excluded from 
prescription drug coverage in health insurance plans. Federal funding 
for family planning for low-income Americans has fallen nearly 60 
percent in real dollars over the past two decades, leaving fully half 
the women who need subsidized family planning aid without access to 
services. Family planning gives mothers the ability to properly space 
their births. It makes it more likely that they will receive pre-natal 
care, and it helps to ensure that every pregnancy is planned and every 
child is wanted. These programs are worthy of increased investment. The 
return is enormous. In fact, research has shown that every dollar of 
public money invested in family planning and reproductive health care 
saves more than four dollars in future costs.

  I urge my colleagues in the United States Congress to take the funds 
that the president has proposed for failed abstinence-only programs and 
use it to double the funding for the Title X family planning program. 
This program has a long history of success in providing basic 
reproductive health care, family planning information and 
contraceptives to low-income Americans. We must always remember one 
basic fact: healthy mothers and healthy children go hand in hand.
  We should all be grateful to Population Connection for providing us 
with this information that can help guide the policies we adopt. Now 
that they've provided the information, we in Congress must act to adopt 
policies that will bring us quickly to the day that such a report is 
unnecessary . . . the day when every city gets an ``A''.

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