§254c–6 Certain Services for Pregnant Women

Summary

Provides grants to national, regional, or local adoption organizations so they can train staff at public and nonprofit health centers to give pregnant women adoption information and referrals on an equal basis with other nondirective counseling options. The training must follow guidelines the Secretary must get made within 180 days after October 17, 2000. Those guidelines must be made by a group of adoption organizations (covering all adoption models and the adoption triad: birth mother, infant, and adoptive parent) working with public health entities. No grants can be made before those guidelines exist. Grants can be used directly or passed to other adoption groups, can pay for curriculum, and must try to use trainers who know all parts of the adoption process and have local experience. A trainer may be taught in a different area than where they later train. Adoption organizations getting grants must try to include family planning clinics, community and migrant health centers, centers serving homeless people and public housing residents, and school health centers when offering training. The Secretary must give eligible centers full information about the training and encourage them to take part, and the training organization must pay centers’ training costs from its grant money. The Secretary must report to Congress by 1 year after October 17, 2000 on how often centers provide adoption information on request, and must later report again on training effectiveness and compliance. Those reports must not break patient privacy or monitor counseling in ways that reveal patient identity and must be done through HRSA with AHRQ. An application is required for each grant in the form the Secretary sets. Money may be appropriated as needed for fiscal years 2001 through 2005. Definitions in one line each: adoption organization = a nonprofit private group whose main purpose is adoption; designated staff = health center staff who give pregnancy or adoption information; eligible health centers = public or nonprofit centers that provide health services to pregnant women.