[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 404 Introduced in House (IH)]








109th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. CON. RES. 404

  Expressing the sense of the Congress concerning contraceptives for 
                                 women.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 17, 2006

  Mrs. Lowey submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was 
            referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
  Expressing the sense of the Congress concerning contraceptives for 
                                 women.

Whereas the United States has one of the highest rates of abortion in the 
        industrialized world, with American women experiencing 1.3 million 
        abortions every year;
Whereas behind almost every abortion in the United States is an unintended 
        pregnancy, therefore, efforts to reduce unintended pregnancy will reduce 
        the number of abortions;
Whereas the most effective way to prevent unintended pregnancy is to improve 
        access to safe, affordable, effective contraceptive methods and to 
        provide medically accurate information about how to use such methods;
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 a low-income woman today is 4 times as likely to have an unintended 
        pregnancy and more than 4 times as likely to have an abortion as her 
        higher-income counterpart;
Whereas abortion rates have increased among low-income women, even as they have 
        continued to decrease among more affluent women;
Whereas the United States has established as a public health goal for the nation 
        to reduce the proportion of pregnancies that are unintended by 40 
        percent by 2010, and achieving this goal would reduce the annual number 
        of abortions from 1,300,000 to 780,000; and
Whereas the United States has an impressive capacity for marshaling the 
        resources necessary to tackle pressing public health problems such as 
        smoking, and the same should be done for the problem of unintended 
        pregnancy by ensuring universal access to effective and affordable 
        contraception: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring),  
That the Congress--
            (1) supports a major, national campaign to help all women, 
        regardless of income, avoid unintended pregnancy and abortion 
        through access to contraception; and
            (2) supports programs and policies that make it easier for 
        all women not only to obtain contraceptives but also to use 
        them consistently and correctly over time.
                                 <all>