BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 2659

By: Villarreal

Human Services

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Texas can do more to improve life outcomes for Texas families and children. The state ranks 37th in the nation based on the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Kids Count Data Book's 10 most important indicators of child well-being. Recent data shows 8.3 percent of babies born in Texas were low birth weight babies; 5.6 percent of women smoked during their pregnancy; the infant mortality rate was 6.6 percent; and 23 percent of children were living in poverty. Thirty-two percent of Texas children lived in a single-parent family and 11.1 percent of women who gave birth in Texas received late or no prenatal care.  The Texas Attorney General's Child Support Division cites extensive research in its publication, The First Nine Months of Fatherhood: Paternal Contributions to Maternal and Child Health Outcomes, that a healthy and involved male partner during pregnancy has positive impacts and implications for the pregnant partner and child:

Women with involved partners were 40 percent more likely to receive prenatal care in their first trimester than those without an involved partner. Pregnant smokers with involved partners reduced their cigarette consumption 36 percent more than those whose partners were not involved. Fathers who were involved during the pregnancy were more likely to establish paternity at the hospital and to continue to provide emotional and economic support to their child.

Couples with positive prenatal father involvement were more likely to be together three years after the child's birth. Expectant fathers can be influential advocates for breastfeeding, playing a critical role in encouraging a mother to breastfeed the couple's newborn infant. Involving the father during the pregnancy increases his understanding of his child and the mother, which may help prevent violence.

The goal of this legislation is to increase fathers' participation in the prenatal period of their children's lives because studies show that a healthy and engaged father improves the likelihood of a healthy pregnancy and child. The attorney general has already developed resource materials on this subject.

C.S.H.B. 2659 requires any entity that contracts with the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program to provide a publication on fatherhood required to be developed by the attorney general to each pregnant woman receiving clinical or nutritional services under the program and to the prospective father of the child, if possible. The bill requires the publication to provide information on the importance of fathers' involvement and provide guidance to fathers on the steps they can take to improve outcomes for their children.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 2659 amends the Health and Safety Code to require the attorney general to develop and periodically update a publication that describes the importance and long-term positive effects on children of a father's involvement during a mother's pregnancy and provides guidance to prospective fathers on the positive actions that they can take to support the pregnant mother during pregnancy and the effect those actions have on pregnancy outcomes. The bill requires the attorney general to make the publication available to an agency, organization, or other entity that contracts with the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, and on the attorney general's Internet website in a format that allows the public to download and print the publication.

C.S.H.B. 2659 requires the publication to include information regarding steps that unmarried parents must take if the parents want to establish legal paternity and the benefits of paternity establishment for children; a worksheet to help fathers identify personal risk behaviors, including smoking, substance abuse, and unemployment; information regarding how a father's personal risk behaviors may affect the father's child, and a guide to resources that are available to the father to assist in making necessary lifestyle changes; certain information for fathers about the mother's prenatal health; an explanation of prenatal health care visits, including an explanation of what they are and what to expect, and the practical ways a father may support the mother throughout pregnancy; certain information about the child's prenatal health; an explanation regarding prenatal tests, including an explanation of what the tests are and what to expect; certain basic infant care information; certain healthy relationship and co-parenting information; information to help the father understand the mother's circumstances and responsibilities, and methods for supporting her; worksheets, activities, and exercises to aid fathers and the couple relating to the role of the father in the family system and father involvement; and activities and projects for fathers that increase the father's understanding of the stages of child developmental and health and safety issues.

C.S.H.B. 2659 requires an agency, organization, or other entity that contracts with the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children to provide the publication to each pregnant woman receiving clinical or nutritional services under the program and to the prospective father of her child, if possible.

C.S.H.B. 2659 specifies that an agency, organization, or other entity providing services under the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children is not required to comply with the bill's provisions related to the publication until the attorney general makes the publication available.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the act does not receive the necessary vote, the act takes effect September 1, 2009.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

C.S.H.B. 2659 differs from the original in nonsubstantive ways by conforming to certain bill drafting conventions.