Murkowski Honored for Fight Against Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders

Press Release

Senator Lisa Murkowski today was honored by the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (NOFAS) for her leadership on the issue at the Smart Moms, Healthy Babies International Commemoration event -- hosted by NOFAS to raise national and international awareness about recommendations and resources for a healthy pregnancy.

"I am incredibly honored and humbled to be recognized as a champion for the awareness and prevention of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders -- which breaks my heart by being far too prevalent in my home state," said Murkowski. "FASD is the number one most preventable cause of developmental disabilities and birth defects. Alaska has the highest rate of FASD in the nation, and although we have reduced that rate by 32% in recent decades, we still have so much more that we can do. I am dedicated to working so that there are no more babies are born with this incurable, but entirely preventable, disease."

Senator Murkowski's work combating FASD includes passing a resolution in Congress to establish September 9th as International FASD Awareness Day and introducing the bipartisan Advancing FASD Research, Prevention, and Services Act, which would:

Require the National Institutes of Health to develop a research agenda for the diagnosis, prevention and intervention of FASD;

Authorize federal grants for pilot projects to determine and implement the best practices for educating children with FASD within the school system;

Direct NIH to conduct support activities to integrate case definitions into clinical practice, thereby improving surveillance activities, and to provide health care workers and others with resources to reduce alcohol-exposed pregnancies;

Authorize development and broadcast of national public service announcements to raise public awareness of the risks associated with alcohol consumption during pregnancy.

Source