[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 68 Introduced in House (IH)]
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118th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. CON. RES. 68
Expressing support for the recognition of September 26, 2023, as
``World Contraception Day'' and expressing the sense of the House of
Representatives regarding global and domestic access to contraception.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
September 26, 2023
Ms. Velazquez (for herself, Mrs. Torres of California, Mr. Torres of
New York, Mr. Nadler, Mr. Doggett, Ms. Bonamici, Mr. Grijalva, Ms.
Stevens, Mr. Connolly, Ms. Chu, Ms. Brownley, Ms. Clarke of New York,
Ms. DelBene, Ms. Meng, Ms. McClellan, and Mr. Johnson of Georgia)
submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to
the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee
on Foreign Affairs, for a period to be subsequently determined by the
Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall
within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Expressing support for the recognition of September 26, 2023, as
``World Contraception Day'' and expressing the sense of the House of
Representatives regarding global and domestic access to contraception.
Whereas September 26 marks World Contraception Day, a day when organizations and
individuals around the world advocate to improve awareness of
contraception and the right to sexual and reproductive health;
Whereas, in 1968, the United Nations International Conference on Human Rights
declared that ``parents have a basic human right to determine freely and
responsibly the number and spacing of their children'';
Whereas access to contraceptives in the United States is recognized as a
fundamental right under the constitutional right to privacy through the
Supreme Court's decisions in Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479
(1965) and Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438 (1972);
Whereas the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recognized family
planning in its published list of the ``Ten Greatest Public Health
Achievements in the 20th Century'';
Whereas target 3.7 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),
which was adopted by the United States and 192 other United Nations (UN)
member states, calls on countries ``by 2030, to ensure universal access
to sexual and reproductive health-care services, including for family
planning, information and education, and the integration of reproductive
health into national strategies and programs'';
Whereas certain barrier methods of contraception, specifically condoms,
decreases the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and could
eliminate the 3,500,000 annual cases of infertility in low- and middle-
income countries that are caused by untreated gonorrhea or chlamydia;
Whereas the ability of individuals to control the number and spacing of their
children reduces rates of unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions, and
maternal deaths;
Whereas in economically developing countries, public health experts estimate
that access to contraceptives would result in 76,000,000 fewer
unintended pregnancies, 26,000,000 fewer unsafe abortions, and 186,000
fewer maternal deaths;
Whereas in the United States due to discrimination, significant racial, ethnic,
and socioeconomic disparities exist in sexual and reproductive health,
particularly in maternal mortality and morbidity and infant mortality
with Black, American Indian, and Alaska Native women two to three times
more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than White women;
Whereas contraceptive choices are unduly influenced by structural racism, gender
discrimination, and socioeconomic barriers;
Whereas research shows that both historically and today, medical racism has
resulted in experiments on communities of color, such as the misleading
and eugenics-based birth control trials on Puerto Rican women in the
1950s and the development of modern gynecology through the
experimentation and exploitation of enslaved Black women beginning in
the 1840s, has contributed to persistent feelings of mistrust among
Black women regarding their ability to access high-quality sexual and
reproductive health care;
Whereas effective contraception has been shown to be an important strategy to
maintaining and improving mental health and well-being for women and
other individuals who have the capacity to get pregnant;
Whereas planning, delaying, and spacing births helps people achieve their
education, career, and life goals;
Whereas young women with access to the pill before age 21 graduated from college
in significantly higher numbers than did women of the same era who came
of age before the pill was available to them;
Whereas children born to women with access to United States federally funded
family planning programs, which increase access to affordable
contraception and family planning services, were more likely to complete
at least 12, 13, and 16 years of schooling, and had 2-percent higher
family incomes as adults;
Whereas globally, access to contraception increases labor force participation,
boosting economic health and prosperity of economically developing
communities;
Whereas many women face challenges in accessing birth control and using it
effectively, and globally, 218,000,000 women in economically developing
countries have an unmet need for modern contraception;
Whereas in the United States, one-third of adult United States women who have
ever tried to obtain prescription contraception reported barriers to
access;
Whereas one barrier to access is an appropriately trained, linguistically
appropriate, and culturally competent reproductive health care workforce
including primary care and other providers to ensure that all patients
have access to a contraceptive method of their choice including highly
effective reversible contraception methods;
Whereas more than 19,000,000 women of reproductive age in the United States are
in need of publicly funded contraception and live in a contraceptive
desert where they lack reasonable access in their county to a health
center that offers the full range of contraceptive methods;
Whereas 12 States in America allow some health care providers to refuse to
provide services related to contraception;
Whereas studies show that preventing young adults from accessing contraceptives
puts teens at risk of unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted
diseases, including HIV;
Whereas emergency contraception is a safe way to prevent pregnancy after
unprotected sex, but 9 States in America have adopted restrictions on
emergency contraception by excluding emergency contraception from a
State's family planning program, contraceptive coverage mandate, or by
allowing pharmacists to refuse to dispense emergency contraceptives;
Whereas, according to the U.N., globally, 19 percent of governments apply one or
more restrictions on contraceptive access, and these include
restrictions on the age and marital status of the person seeking access
to contraception, parental consent, and restrictions on access to
emergency contraceptive pills or sterilization;
Whereas researchers have found some women of color experience implicit and
explicit racism when interacting with the medical system, lack of
quality information about effective family planning methods, and an
inability to access or afford reproductive health care;
Whereas, while comprehensive sex education has been proven to reduce rates of
unintended pregnancy and STIs, and include outcomes of appreciation of
sexual diversity, dating and intimate partner violence prevention,
development of healthy relationships, prevention of child sex abuse,
improved social and emotional learning, and increased media literacy,
but only 20 States and the District of Columbia require sex education to
include information on birth control;
Whereas globally, many countries have made advances in developing policies to
improve access to comprehensive sex education, however, there remain
significant gaps between global and regional policies and implementation
on the ground such as limited teacher training capacity;
Whereas existing research highlights uninsured women were 30 percent less likely
to report using prescription contraceptive methods than women with
private or public health insurance and women identify affordability
among the top three factors in determining which contraception to use;
Whereas LGBTQ+ individuals, particularly transgender individuals undergoing
transition, experience unique barriers to contraception access such as
fragmentation of health services, discrimination from providers, and
insurance issues, all of which can be exacerbated by racism and
intersecting oppression;
Whereas there are continued efforts to defund or eliminate contraceptive
programs and falsely conflating emergency contraceptives and
intrauterine devices with abortion, even though they are proven to
reduce unintended pregnancies;
Whereas reproductive justice is the human right to maintain personal bodily
autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we
have in safe and sustainable communities;
Whereas people of color, indigenous people, immigrant communities, and people
with disabilities have been exploited in the service of contraceptive
development, and been coerced into using contraception, or sterilized
against their will, yet still face barriers to accessing contraception
when they need it; and
Whereas Congress has repeatedly recognized the importance of women's ability to
access contraceptives through support for the Medicaid program, title X
of the Public Health Service Act, and the Federal Employees Health
Benefits Program: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring),
That--
(1) it is the sense of Congress that Congress and the
Administration should take further steps to ensure that all
people have universal, expansive, high-quality access to free
or affordable contraception;
(2) Congress and the Administration should ensure all
people capable of pregnancy have the autonomy to decide whether
to have children, the number and spacing of their children, and
to have medically accurate information, education, and access
to health services to make these decisions and pursue
reproductive justice;
(3) Congress and the Administration should examine and
support ways to expand comprehensive access to contraception,
including studying contraceptive deserts, new evidence-based
methods and innovations, and whether Federal policy solutions
can address these issues;
(4) Congress and the Administration should ensure people
have access to affordable, comprehensive, consistent insurance
coverage for all their reproductive health care needs,
including contraception and abortion;
(5) Congress and the Administration should expand training
of counseling, provision, and followup care for all forms of
highly effective reversible contraception methods to primary
care physicians to increase access to the most effective forms
of birth control available;
(6) Congress aligns with scientific perspective that
``contraception'' includes all current and future Food and Drug
Administration-approved, -granted, or -cleared methods,
including those available by prescription and over-the-counter,
and the World Health Organization defines contraception to
include female and male sterilization, the intrauterine device
(IUD), the implant, injectables, oral contraceptive pills,
external and internal condoms, vaginal barrier methods
(including the diaphragm, cervical cap, and spermicidal foam,
jelly, cream, and sponge), lactational amenorrhea method (LAM),
emergency contraception, and other modern methods not reported
separately (for example, the contraceptive patch or vaginal
ring);
(7) Congress and the Administration should ensure that laws
governing contraception access are evidence-based and grounded
in accurate medical information;
(8) Congress and the Administration should work to end
reproductive health disparities, including with regard to
ethnicity, race, gender identity, and sexual orientation;
(9) Congress and the Administration should work to end
gender-based violence, which disproportionately affects women,
including transgender women;
(10) Congress and the Administration should expand
comprehensive and gender-inclusive sex education and patient-
centered counseling, which includes accurate, age-appropriate
information about one's body, sexual and reproductive health,
methods of contraception, access, and human rights;
(11) Congress and the Administration should ensure that
United States foreign assistance includes support for
contraception services, safe abortion services, and quality
postabortion care, and domestic assistance includes support for
contraception services through title X family planning
providers and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; and
(12) this Congress does not support any policies that
undermine the effectiveness of domestic and global programs and
supports additional funding for global and domestic programs
that increase access to contraception such as those under title
X, Medicaid, Federal health care providers, and the United
States Agency for International Development's Office of
Population and Reproductive Health.
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