Roundup: California Bills Will Increase Resources for Youth in and Graduating From Foster Care

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a package of legislation focused on expanding and promoting adoption opportunities and increasing services for children in California’s foster care system, reports California Newswire.

Schwarzenegger Signs Bills Supporting Youth in Foster Care and Strengthening Child Welfare

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a package of legislation
focused on expanding and promoting adoption opportunities and
increasing services for children in California’s foster care system, reports California Newswire.

The bills signed into law will create a food stamp program to assist
youth transitioning out of the foster care system and help provide
housing for former foster youth working toward a higher education
degree. The legislation also ensures that California’s foster care
system will continue to have the resources necessary to provide the
valuable services these children depend on and helps older foster
children secure a safe and stable living environment. 

Schwarzenegger also signed a number of other bills addressing foster care, adoption, and child welfare, including bills that:

  • create
    a 12-month transitional food stamp demonstration project that grants
    federally funded food stamps to foster youth for one year after their
    eighteenth birthday, when they age-out of the foster care system and no
    longer qualify for state aid.
  • require
    the University of California, the California State University and
    California Community Colleges to give priority for on-campus housing to
    emancipated foster youth.
  • extend
    the Older Youth Adoption pilot project for six months until June 30,
    2010 to provide participating pilot counties with sufficient time to
    demonstrate the effectiveness of pre-adoption and post-adoption
    services for older youth who have been in the system over 18 months and
    are living in group homes or non-related foster families.
  • establish
    the development of a plan for the ongoing oversight and coordination of
    health care services for foster youth and the development of a
    personalized transition plan for a foster youth in the 90-day period
    before he or she ages out of foster care.
  • specify
    that any savings in state funds attained from an increase in federal
    funding for adoption services be reinvested in the foster care and
    adoption service system. The bill also requires adoption agencies to
    inform prospective adoptive parents of their potential eligibility for
    federal and state adoption tax credits.
  • tighten requirements
    for approving criminal background checks for foster care family homes
    licensing in an effort to prohibit persons convicted of specific
    offenses from becoming foster or adoptive parents.
  • broaden
    the use of the federal adoption incentive awards that are received by
    the state as a result of increased adoptions of older children to
    include other legal permanency options available to older foster youth
    in order to increase the opportunities for these youth to be placed in
    stable homes.

 

Feminists for Choice Reviews Bills Restricting Women’s Rights in Arizona and Oklahoma

Laws passed recently in two states, Arizona and Oklahoma, have many things in common, says Serena at Feminists for Choice.  Both restrict access to abortion care and both contain legislation previously put forth and vetoed or defeated but now repackaged.  And…

Arizona and Oklahoma are not unique. This could happen in your state.
That’s why it’s absolutely critical that pro-choice advocates stay on
top of what’s happening in their legislatures, because abortion bills
don’t always make it onto the ballot. Feminists For Choice will keep
you up to date about the proposed legislation in Colorado, Montana, and
Florida, and we’ll do our best to keep you in the loop about the
challenges to the Arizona and Oklahoma statutes. But we need your help!
If you have information about ways our readers can get involved to
challenge these assaults on choice, leave us a comment or send us an
e-mail so that we can help get the word out.

 

October 13th, 2009

Catholic News Agency: Catholic pharmacist in Australia criticized for adhering to Catholic teaching

Lubbock Online: Pro-life feminist to speak at fundraiser

California Catholic Daily: Pro-Life Photos Make New York Times

The Korea Times: (Letter) Lies About ‘Legal’ Abortion

Daily Princetonian: Pro-Life poster display vandalized

USA Today: Abortion foes push for license plates

Bangkok Post: Challenges confronting contraception

BBC News: Doctor jury warned over ‘morals’

October 12th, 2009

AP: UN chief urges new commitment to women’s equality, girls education and access to birth control

Daily Press: Strong families

AFP: Peruvian bishops slam abortion rights bill

Catholic PRWire: Natural Family Planning Is a Way of Life for Washington Couple

Standard Examiner: Abortion: The health care reform issue that won’t go away

World Net Daily: Principal to boy: Strip off ‘insulting’ pro-life shirt

Seattle Times: Pro-choice group targets Hutchison

LifeNews: ProLife News: Genetic Testing, UN, China, Abortion, Infertility, Peru, NARAL

NewsChannel 4: Requiring surveys before abortion

LifeNews: New York Times Applauded for Showing Pictures of Babies Killed in Abortions

Politico: Jarrett speaking to Naral

California NewsWire: Gov. Schwarzenegger Signs Legislation to Provide Services and Resources to California’s Foster Children

TimesRecordNews: Churches influence abortion debate

Feminists for Choice: Restrictive Abortion Laws: Parallels Between Arizona and Oklahoma

Crosswalk: Abortion and the American Conscience

LifeNews: Pro-Life Democrat Promises No Health Care Bill if Pelosi Blocks Abortion Vote

LifeNews: Catholics Should Oppose the Public Option Because It Means Funding Abortions

FiercePharma: Lupin sets sights on birth control market

Momento 24: Rosario: A young woman died after an illegal abortion