In his recent State of the State Address, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee (R) asked the legislature to expand programs to help women and families, including $100 million for pregnant moms. Kailey Cornett of Hope Clinic for Women in Nashville tells AFN the funds will go to the Department of Children's Services (DCS), TennCare, and pro-life pregnancy clinics.
"This funding, as well as the funding for DCS and Medicare and TennCare, I think really shows that they have a heart for wanting flourishing families in Tennessee," she responds. "I'm grateful that pregnancy centers are included as part of that community to help families."
Cornett says her clinic alone does about 900 pregnancy tests per year, and the needs are growing in complexity.
"It's never just someone who is just facing an unplanned pregnancy. They're also dealing with unemployment or a lack of housing or domestic violence and addiction," the pro-lifer relays. "There's a lot of co-occurring issues when they come through our doors, and so we need to have an even broader slate of resources and community partnerships to meet those needs."
Gov. Lee, who is on the advisory board for the Hope Clinic for Women, stressed in his address that being pro-life is more than protecting the unborn, saying that the mother and family must also be supported and preserved. Along with the $100 million grant for crisis pregnancy centers, he also proposed expanding paid parental leave for state employees and widening the Medicaid eligibility for pregnant women and parents. His administration also plans to ask the federal government to cover the cost of diapers for Medicaid recipients for two years.
If his proposed grant program is approved, Tennessee would become one of the top spending states on pro-life organizations. Considering that research shows pro-life pregnancy centers do a better job of providing prenatal and post-birth services than abortion clinics do, such organizations have shown that they will use the extra income to provide real help to women and children.
