January 16, 2013 Legislative Update

Click here to view the tracking grid from the ND Women’s Network. As an organization, we may not be active on all areas but we will follow the progress. We will try to cover as many bills as possible. Only a portion of the expected bills have posted at this time. We’ll be updating this grid regularly, posting it on our website: www.ndwomen.org and sending in emails.

Bills are categorized, as best as possible, into topic areas: Health Care Reform, Reproductive Health, Women and Family Health, Anti-Violence, Education, Economic Justice, Diversity, and Government Affairs.

Bills of particular interest for the Women’s Network is House Bill 1305, which adds additional restrictions on abortion access.

As we closely watch for child care supports, the Department of Commerce bill (SB 2018) includes some funding to develop new child care facilities. This funding only meets a tiny proportion of the need. The first hearing on the bill will be in Senate Appropriations on 1/18 at 8:30am. Other bills should be posting soon. A bill (HB 1317) has been introduced to provide student loan paydowns for early childhood service providers.

I did testify in opposition to House Bill 2081 which denies Medicaid coverage for gestational carriers (surrogates). The opposition was in support of the intent but not before building in a safety net for low income women who may become exploited in a surrogacy contract.


Also, please try to make today’s meeting at the state capitol on child care:

North Dakota

 Children’s Investment Initiative Meeting

Wednesday January 16th

4:00 PM Brynhild Haugland at the State Capitol Building