We understand the logistics of President Obama’s recently revealed $3.55 trillion budget can be a bit hard to comprehend, so we here at wOw have paged through it and picked out parts that may impact women in the coming years, like Social Security benefits, health care, contraception and the fight against gender discrimination.

Family Planning

-Funding for the Medicaid Family Planning State Option allows states to bypass some red tape when providing services to women who don’t normally qualify for government aid, such as cancer screenings and preventative care. The Atlantic points out that some argue this would reduce later-term abortions because poorer women would have quicker access to doctors. This is the same provision House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took flack for, as she tried to get it into the stimulus bill. It was dropped from that, but women’s groups lobbied hard to get it in the budget. 

-Promotes "evidence-based" teen-pregnancy-prevention programs, as well as state, community-based and faith-based efforts. "The program will fund models that stress the importance of abstinence while providing medically accurate and age-appropriate information to youth who have already become sexually active," the budget says.

"We commend the president for his commitment to make family planning and basic health-care services, including lifesaving cancer screenings, more accessible and affordable to millions of low-income women and their families," said Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Cecile Richards. "With women and their families losing health coverage every day, we applaud the president for making women’s health a priority as he works to reform our health-care system."

PPFA notes that the Congressional Budget Office has said this would provide coverage to 2.3 million low-income women by 2014, while other studies say it could help 500,000 women avoid unplanned pregnancy.

Health Care

-Creates $634 billion health-care fund more than 10 years to reform health-care system by (hopefully) bringing down costs and expanding coverage

-$6 billion for cancer research at the National Institutes of Health

-$330 million to boost number of doctors, nurses, dentists practicing in areas of the country that have shortages of health professionals; $74 million to improve access to and quality of health care in rural areas

-More funding for child care, expands Early Head Start and Head Start, creates the Nurse Home Visitation program to support first-time moms

-New Food and Drug Administration efforts to make sure Americans can buy safe, effective, cheaper drugs from other countries; calls for the creation of regulatory pathway to approve follow-on biologics – cheaper, copycat-like versions of complex, protein-based medicines that have helped make breakthroughs for cancer, multiple sclerosis, diabetes and HIV/AIDS, as well as many serious rare diseases

-Improves oversight and program integrity of Medicare Prescription Drug Program (Part D), Medicare Advantage and Medicaid

-$3.2 billion for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) to help low-income families with their home heating and cooling bills

-Extends the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act through 2013, gives it an extra $44 billion on top of the $25 billion already allotted; will provide insurance for four million more kids by 2013

-Provides funding to reduce domestic violence and enhance emergency-care systems