©2025 League of Conservation Voters
1979 Scorecard Vote
163
225
46
Issues
H.R. 4962. Child Health and Medicaid authorizations. The vote is on the Dannemeyer motion to send the bill back to the House Commerce Committee with instructions to add an amendment requiring teenagers to get consent from their parents before they could use the services of government funded family planning clinics. Thus the amendment would have prevented many teenagers from getting counselling or access to contraceptives. Population activists considered this an important vote because of the epidemic of teenage pregnancies. 68% of all teenage pregnancies are accidental and they number over 700,000 a year. A study by the Alan Guttmacher Institute suggests that if denied contraception, most teenagers prefer to risk pregnancy than to give up having sex. (The law already prevents federally funded clinics from doing or talking about abortions.) Environmentalists support family planning programs because rapid population growth hastens the depletion and pollution of natural resources. The Carter Administration did not lobby the amendment which came up suddenly. Rejected 163-225. December 11, 1979. No is the correct vote.
©2025 League of Conservation Voters