Friday, March 8, on International Women's Day, Governor Mike DeWine released his administration’s’ Home Visitation Pilot Program after receiving recommendations from the Governor’s Advisory Committee, which suggested to invest an additional $50 million to expand programming.

Governor DeWine’s pilot program is similar to Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio’s Healthy Moms and Healthy Babies program, which provides direct home services and in areas of Ohio are at the highest risk for poor birth outcomes like Mahoning and Trumbull County.

As Ohio’s former Attorney General, Mike DeWine appealed a court case three times that would block funding that allows Planned Parenthood to provide critical preventative health care services and programming such as Healthy Moms and Healthy Babies that actively is working to lower Ohio’s alarming infant mortality rates among African Americans.

Statement from Iris E. Harvey, President and CEO, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio:

“We share the objective to lower Ohio’s alarming infant and maternal rates, which is why our Healthy Moms and Healthy Babies program has been sending trained Community Health Care Workers into homes since 1996 to provide moms and their families with education and resources they need to live healthy, full lives.  

“DeWine’s track record of wasting taxpayer dollars to appeal a court case that partly funds a program that shares the goal of his administration’s Home Visitation Pilot Program is concerning. Furthermore, his promise to sign a six-week abortion ban will undermine efforts to sustainably address these alarming rates in our state.”

States like Ohio that have more abortion restrictions tend to have poorer health outcomes for women and children than other states, including higher rates of maternal and infant mortality. Ohio ranks as one of the worst in the nation for infant mortality rates, coming in at having the 11th highest rate in the country of babies dying before their first birthday with African American infants dying three times the rate of white infants.

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio supports advocacy for women’s reproductive health and women’s rights, including grassroots organizing, community education, and lobbying.www.ppao.org