California State Budget Needed Now So Prenatal Health Clinics Can Remain Open

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

(Cross-posted at California Progress Report and Calitics). 

Today I visited the Birthing Project in Sacramento, a health clinic a few blocks away from the State Capitol. The Birthing Project staff works very hard on behalf of their clients to increase healthy pregnancies and successful births -- something you’d think typically anti-choice Republican politicians would rhapsodize about. Instead, the Birthing Project and health clinics like it throughout California -- who treat newborns and seniors and everyone in between -- are in danger of closing their doors or eliminating services because a handful of Republican State Senators are refusing to provide one additional vote to pass the state budget.

With Senate Republicans holding out on the budget, state payments to keep clinics like the Birthing Project open stopped two weeks ago. For facilities that only get by on the skin of their teeth anyway, not getting these state funds is a huge blow. The harm caused to clinics like these is totally unnecessary and totally reversible -- as soon as one more Republican member of the State Senate does his job, finds his conscience, and votes for the state budget.

The Assembly passed a budget that meets the constitutional requirement to be balanced back on July 20. That budget has a reserve of $3.4 billion -- the highest in history and more than a billion dollars higher than what the Republican Governor proposed in his budget. The budget makes deep cuts in a number of areas that were not acceptable to Democrats, but, in the spirit of compromise and a responsible effort to enact a budget, we reluctantly agreed to these cuts.

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