(SACRAMENTO, CA) – Legislation authored by Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San Francisco) to help pregnant foster youth access to prenatal care and prepare for parenthood was vetoed yesterday by Governor Jerry Brown.
Sponsored by the John Burton Foundation, the Children’s Law Center of California and First Place for Youth, Ting’s Assembly Bill (AB) 1838 would have allowed aid currently provided to parenting foster youth to be available three months prior to their baby’s due date.
This change would encourage young mothers to disclose their pregnancies early, which helps ensure timely referrals to essential prenatal care and expectant mother programs. It would also help them obtain vital supplies – like a crib, diapers, and baby bottles.
“Every child in California should be given the best opportunity for success, but unfortunately foster youth start with one hand tied behind their back. Pregnant foster youth face even greater challenges and don’t receive the same support that most of us have from our families,” said Ting. “By vetoing AB 1838, the state missed an opportunity to invest in these children earlier and they won’t have the same opportunities as other children to achieve the California Dream.”
In a recent op-ed in The Sacramento Bee, John Burton stated: “Four years ago, we made a promise to care for foster children until they turn 21, and the population of parenting foster youths increased. AB 1838 would help keep that promise by ensuring that pregnant youths and their children avoid health problems and have better outcomes. We all share a collective responsibility for children in foster care, and that includes their babies.”
Out of approximately 60,000 foster youth, between 850 and 900 are parents. Young women in foster care are two and a half times more likely to become pregnant by age 19, and children of parents in foster care are 300 percent more likely than their peers to spend time in foster care.
Despite the perception that young mothers give birth to healthier infants, 14 percent of infants born to mothers under the age of 17 were born with low birth weights – nearly twice the rate of adults. Low birth weight infants spend more time in hospitals. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, low birth weight infants on average spent 17.7 days in the hospital, whereas most healthy infants go home after one day.
Brown’s veto message of AB 1838 cited concerns with new costs. However, the 2014 California Youth Transitions to Adulthood Study of 17-year-old pregnant foster youth in California found that 20 percent did not receive prenatal care, increasing the likelihood that the child will be born with health problems, which in turn leads to increased Medi-Cal costs. The average net savings for teens who received prenatal care at the seventh month of pregnancy is $3,146 per birth, compared to the cost for those who didn’t receive prenatal care.
Earlier this year, Ting secured $4 million in the FY 2016-2017 state budget to increase the infant supplement from $411 to $900 per month. However, the supplement is not available until after the child is born.