A resolution to express the sense of the Senate concerning the value of family planning for American women.

Calls for Congress to: (1) help women, regardless of income, avoid unintended pregnancy and abortion through access to affordable contraception; and (2) support programs and policies that make it easier for women to obtain contraceptives.

[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 485 Introduced in Senate (IS)]








109th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. RES. 485

   To express the sense of the Senate concerning the value of family 
                      planning for American women.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 22, 2006

 Mrs. Clinton (for herself, Ms. Cantwell, Mr. Menendez, Mr. Kerry, Mr. 
  Lautenberg, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Schumer, Mrs. Boxer, Mr. 
   Harkin, Mrs. Feinstein, and Ms. Landrieu) submitted the following 
 resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Health, Education, 
                          Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
   To express the sense of the Senate concerning the value of family 
                      planning for American women.

Whereas the United States has one of the highest rates of abortion in the 
        industrialized world;
Whereas reducing unintended pregnancies will reduce the number of abortions;
Whereas one of the most effective ways to prevent unintended pregnancy is to 
        improve access to safe, affordable, effective family planning;
Whereas contraceptive use has declined (slightly among all women and 
        precipitously among low-income women) and, as a result, unplanned 
        pregnancy rates have risen among low-income women by 30 percent;
Whereas the impact of contraceptive use is hard to overstate--11 percent of 
        women in the United States who do not use contraception account for \1/
        2\ of all unintended pregnancies;
Whereas low-income women today are 4 times as likely to have an unintended 
        pregnancy and more than 4 times as likely to have an abortion as higher-
        income women;
Whereas abortion rates have increased among low-income women, even as they have 
        continued to decrease among more affluent women;
Whereas 12,800,000 women of reproductive age are uninsured and 9,300,000 women 
        of reproductive age live in poverty;
Whereas lack of coverage for contraception and other health care costs result in 
        women of reproductive age paying 68 percent more in out-of-pocket costs 
        for health care services than do men of the same age;
Whereas family planning is a vital part of helping women achieve the best health 
        outcomes for both women and their babies; and
Whereas Women's Health Week is a time to recognize the important role family 
        planning services play in the lives of women across the United States: 
        Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
            (1) Congress should help women, regardless of income, avoid 
        unintended pregnancy and abortion through access to affordable 
        contraception; and
            (2) Congress should support programs and policies that make 
        it easier for women to obtain contraceptives.
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