The latest news, analysis and opinion on the state of low-income women and their families from Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity. For the week ending 5/6/2011: Why one columnist says Congress needs to allow states to decide how to enhance maternal and child health.
Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, a national foundation-led initiative, is excited to collaborate with The Women’s Foundation to bring you the latest news and analysis on women and poverty. Spotlight is the go-to site for news and ideas about fighting poverty.
Here’s this week’s news:
• The Roanoke Times reports that after nearly a century of serving homeless women and their children, the YWCA of Roanoke Valley will be closing at the end of June 2011 and merging its programs with DePaul Community Resources.
• Ana Veciana-Suarez writes in a Miami Herald editorial that “the separation of marriage from parenting” has led to an increase in single-parent families—living in which means children are five times more likely to live below the poverty line and more likely to engage in substance abuse.
• Michael Fraser argues in the Des Moines Register that Congress should continue to provide Title V grants to states based on the number of children living in poverty and allow the states to decide the best way to enhance maternal and child health.
• This week, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels pledged to sign a bill barring federal funds from the Medicaid Act, which pays for health services for low-income women, from the flowing through the state government to health clinics that provide abortions, according to the Chicago Tribune.
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The Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity team