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.
<all>
Introduced in Senate
Referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. (text of measure as introduced: CR S4896)
Llama 3.2 · runs locally in your browser
Ask anything about this bill. The AI reads the full text to answer.
Enter to send · Shift+Enter for new line