Diana Romero & Liza Fuentes
Fall 2010
Series Number: 66
Editors’ Note: In this issue of DifferenTakes, public health policy researchers from City University of New York (CUNY) School of Public Health explore the legacy of the family cap policy in our national welfare program. Since 1996, some states have implemented a policy that denies additional support to poor women who become pregnant while receiving benefits. This policy not only attempts to regulate poor women’s fertility, it places blame for women’s poverty on the backs of their children, rather than on complex and endemic social structures. As Congress prepares to reauthorize the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program, this research offers vital information for people asking that our representatives reconsider the family cap policy.
— Katie McKay Bryson and Betsy Hartmann
