title: Welfare reform: a women's health perspective.
abstract: Welfare reform programs currently being considered and implemented by the federal government and the states pose serious risks to poor women's health. Many of the proposed reforms, such as inflexible work requirements and time limits that threaten to reduce or eliminate current benefits, will make it more difficult for women to leave abusive relationships and will exacerbate the risks associated with violence against women. Other proposals target women's reproductive behavior. Programs that, for example, deny welfare benefits to teen mothers or to children born to women on welfare, increase the emotional stress experienced by poor pregnant women and may effectively coerce some women to seek abortions they would not otherwise choose. Benefit cuts also exacerbate the well-documented ill effects of poverty on children and families. The goals of welfare reform-increasing work participation and reducing poverty-can be more effectively achieved by means that do not pose these serious health risks to poor women.
authors.affiliation: NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, New York City, USA.
authors.forename: M F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Davis
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004608:Eligibility Determination / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D005260:Female; D018166:Health Care Reform / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008489:Medical Indigency / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D011247:Pregnancy; D012946:Social Welfare / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D014932:Women's Health Services / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*