JoAnn M. Smith is named executive director of Family Planning Advocates. Family planning services face a $1.5 million cut under Governor George Pataki.  FPA’s legislative priorities are to get this cut restored and defeat legislation in the State Senate that would impose barriers on access to abortion services. Senate bills that would deny Medicaid funding for abortion and mandate two-parent notification for minors’ abortions are defeated.

FPA works hard to maintain Title X funding and supports new curriculum requirements for OB/GYN accreditation programs to require training in performing induced abortion and in managing abortion-related complications.

FPA outlines a preventative approach to addressing unintended pregnancy which leads the Pataki Administration to propose the use of $15 million in federal funds to address teen pregnancy. The Legislature restores $1.2 million of the $1.5 million cut to family planning proposed by Governor Pataki in the Executive Budget. An additional $1 million in Maternal and Child Health Block Grant funds is allocated to family planning clinics for pregnancy prevention, cancer detection and sexually transmitted infection screening and treatment. The Governor’s proposed family planning budget increases from $17.1 million to $18.3 million.

FPA and several Planned Parenthood affiliates file suit against Seton Health Systems over Seton’s policy of providing information on reproductive health only at the patient’s request.

In response to increasing concerns about services provided by religiously-based healthcare organizations, the Education Fund of FPA establishes the MergerWatch Project to educate the public about potential threats to reproductive health services posed by hospital mergers between religiously affiliated and non-sectarian hospitals.