AAP lauds Supreme Court decision barring census citizenship question

The American Academy of Pediatrics is applauding a U.S. Supreme Court ruling temporarily barring the 2020 census from including a question on citizenship and is calling on the Department of Commerce not to continue to pursue it. In the 2010 census, nearly 1 million children under the age of 5 are estimated to have gone uncounted, jeopardizing funding for these programs in the areas where they live. If the government asks about citizenship status in 2020, experts say undocumented or mixed families may not respond out of fear of deportation, leaving many more vulnerable children uncounted. Regardless of whether the question ultimately appears, pediatricians have an important role to play in relaying the message that children of all ages need to be counted, according to Judy Aschner, M.D., FAAP, chair of the Federation of Pediatric Organizations and chair of pediatrics and physician-in-chief of the Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital.

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