North Carolina State Advocacy
March of Dimes volunteers and staff work to influence both legislative and regulatory activities in each state by serving as powerful voices for the needs of pregnant women, infants, children and families. Our efforts span the full range of our annual Advocacy & Government Affairs priorities, including access to care, research and surveillance, and prevention and education.
In North Carolina, March of Dimes secured 6 legislative wins in 2018 by successfully advocating in support of legislation to allocate $6.4 million in recurring funds, through increased fees to support the full cost of the state’s newborn screening panel updates.
After three years of advocacy, March of Dimes successfully advocated for legislation to add three newborn screening conditions—Pompe, MPS 1, and X-ALD—to the state’s screening panel, and supported legislation to require the state to automatically update its newborn screening panel whenever conditions are added to the federal Recommended Uniform Screening Panel (RUSP); and defeated attempts to allow unregulated association health plans that are non-compliant with current federal law to be created.
Below are just a few examples of fact sheets and issue briefs used in successful state advocacy efforts.
- Raising Minimum Tobacco Purchase Age to 21 Fact Sheet
- E-Cigarettes & Pregnancy Fact Sheet
- Access to Care Fact Sheet
- Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID) Fact Sheet
- Pregnancy Discrimination Fact Sheet
- Pompe Disease Fact Sheet
- Critical Congenital Heart Disease (CCHD) Fact Sheet
- Immunization Exemption Fact Sheet
See also: State advocacy (overview), Federal advocacy, Advocacy and Government Affairs Issues and Priorities, Policies & positions, Victories & achievements, March of Dimes Data Book for Policy Makers and Peristats
