NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1973 SESSION

 

 

CHAPTER 561

HOUSE BILL 974

 

 

AN ACT TO APPROPRIATE FUNDS TO THE CAROLINA POPULATION CENTER.

 

Whereas, some two hundred thousand medically-indigent women in North Carolina still lack adequate family planning guidance or assistance; and

Whereas, nearly one-third of all births in the State today, and nearly one-half among the poor, are unwanted or in medically high-risk categories; and

Whereas, one of the most effective ways to curb mental illness and retardation, especially among mothers and children, is to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies; and

Whereas, an estimated one-fourth to one-third of North Carolina's brides are pregnant at the time they are married — and these marriages are among those most likely to fail; and

Whereas, it costs about sixty dollars ($60.00) a year to provide a North Carolina woman with subsidized family planning services, while it costs at least one thousand five hundred dollars ($1,500) in tax funds annually to provide minimal care and education for each dependent child; and

Whereas, the highest rates of maternal and child mortality and illness occur in families with excess fertility — adding further to medical and other dependency costs; and

Whereas, concern with population trends is essential to the State's overall progress just as concern with family planning is essential to family health and individual fulfillment; and

Whereas, specialized population data and guidance are most urgently needed to help North Carolina avoid the kinds of developmental mistakes which are crippling other parts of the nation; and

Whereas, the National Commission on Population Growth and the American Future has underscored the essential need for State initiative in this field; and

Whereas, North Carolina's rate of population growth is higher than the national average and population trends indicate the State is becoming a new target of in-migration; and

Whereas, governmental and economic authorities agree that North Carolina's healthy future growth depends on careful attention to both the quantity and distribution of population; and

Whereas, the aforesaid Commission also emphasized that haphazard population growth and distribution patterns throughout the U.S. are seriously aggravating the problems of urban life and are contributing greatly to environmental destruction; and

Whereas, the Carolina Population Center is recognized as the foremost institution for population analysis in the Southeast, one of the foremost in the world, and a unique resource for State and regional agencies concerned with population growth and its consequences; and

Whereas, the Carolina Population Center is the only institution in North Carolina combining specialized capability in both population analysis and family planning program development; and

Whereas, the Center's ability to provide expert technical assistance in the design of family planning programs can become increasingly useful to the State in acquiring maximum federal funds for the expansion of such programs; and

Whereas, it is much more cost-effective to sustain and support the capabilities of The Center in these fields than to create and coordinate such capabilities in the other State and local agencies concerned with such matters; and

Whereas, such aforementioned family planning technical assistance and population services would therefore complement without overlapping the functions of other North Carolina State and local agencies; and

Whereas, the maintenance of this capability of The Center would enable it to provide family planning technical assistance and population services to State and local agencies at a demonstrably lower contract price; Now, therefore,

 

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

 

Section 1.  There is hereby appropriated from the General Fund of the State to the Department of Administration the sum of two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000) for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1973, and ending June 30, 1974, for the purpose of insuring The Center's continuing capability in the fields of population services and family planning program development. The funds shall be expended by The Center for the purpose of assisting State and local agencies with the design and delivery of fertility control services, and with population aspects of the further economic and social development of North Carolina.

Sec. 2.  A copy of the audit report for this grant-in-aid program shall be submitted to the Legislative Fiscal Research Division for review.

Sec. 3.  This act shall become effective upon ratification.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 17th day of May, 1973.