(a) The Legislature finds and declares that there is a strong statistical relationship between early entry into prenatal care and healthy birth outcomes. An investment in early intervention is highly cost-effective and prevents untold suffering.
(b) It is the intent of the Legislature that the goals of the program established pursuant to this article, in combination with other programs for pregnant women and children, shall be as follows:
(1) To improve access to and quality of prenatal care by making existing programs serving poor women more accessible through outreach, coordination, and removal of barriers to care.
(2) To combine efforts with other programs to measurably reduce the number of women who smoke, use drugs, or engage in other unhealthy practices during pregnancy.
(c) In order to achieve these goals, it is the intent of the Legislature to improve and coordinate existing programs for pregnant women and infants and to remove barriers to care with an intense focus on women who are at high risk of delivering a low or high birth weight baby or a baby who will suffer from major health problems or disabilities.
(d) The program implemented pursuant to this article shall focus on those target populations that are comprised of pregnant high risk women or potentially pregnant teenagers, pregnant women, and women of childbearing age who are likely to become pregnant who smoke, consume alcoholic beverages, or use controlled substances, Black, Hispanic, Native American, and Asian-Pacific Island women who are pregnant or of childbearing age, and uninsured women of childbearing age.
(Amended (as added by Stats. 1991, Ch. 278) by Stats. 2006, Ch. 538, Sec. 706. Effective January 1, 2007.)