This morning the state legislature released the 2009-11 operational budget bill, and state funding for family planning is drastically reduced in the second year.

The budget will be voted on by both the House and the Senate by Sunday, and the voting could start as early as this afternoon. We have to act fast to protect women's health.

The Senate Ways and Means Committee is our LAST CHANCE to amend the budget to fund family planning at the $9 million level.

Urge your state senator to tell Senate budget leaders to amend the budget to include family planning funding through 2011!

The legislature hopes that the federal government will provide the missing funds for family planning in 2011, and the bill instructs the legislature to include funding in a supplemental budget should federal money fail to arrive. However, there is no guarantee that we'll get the money in time or that the state will be able to provide the resources in 2011 if we don't include funding in the budget now.

According to the state's Department of Health statistics, it costs approximately $550 a year to cover a full range of family planning services for each Washingtonian in need, compared to almost $8,000 in state funds for each Medicaid paid birth.  We simply can't afford not to fund family planning care.

Email your senator right now.