[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 94 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 94

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding women's 
                     health and economic security.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 28, 2013

 Ms. Schakowsky submitted the following resolution; which was referred 
    to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the 
  Committees on Education and the Workforce and Ways and Means, 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

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding women's 
                     health and economic security.

Whereas improving the health and well-being of women is a stated goal of Healthy 
        People 2020, the comprehensive, nationwide health promotion and disease 
        prevention agenda launched by the United States Department of Health and 
        Human Services;
Whereas older women and women with disabilities rely on Medicare and low-income 
        women rely on Medicaid for affordable, quality health care;
Whereas access to comprehensive reproductive health care is critical to 
        improving the health and well-being of women;
Whereas uninsured women are 3 times less likely to have had a Pap test in the 
        last 3 years, with a 60 percent greater risk of late-stage cervical 
        cancer diagnosis;
Whereas 50 percent of uninsured women do not have a regular doctor compared to 
        11 percent of insured women;
Whereas significant racial and ethnic disparities exist in women's health, 
        particularly in maternal mortality, infant mortality, and incidence of 
        premature or low birth weight births;
Whereas lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) women have unique health 
        care needs and confront a unique set of disparities in the current 
        health care system;
Whereas pregnant women are often excluded from research studies violating the 
        ethical principle of justice;
Whereas federally funded research is a critical component to understanding 
        health conditions in women across the life span, and has led to many 
        scientific breakthroughs that have been become clinical standards of 
        care;
Whereas about half of pregnancies are unintended, though preventing unintended 
        pregnancies benefits child health, maternal health, and the health and 
        well-being of families and society as a whole;
Whereas there are continued efforts to defund or eliminate family planning 
        programs, even though they are proven to reduce unintended pregnancies 
        and reduce the need for abortions;
Whereas the Medicaid program covers 71 percent of publicly funded family 
        planning services and over 40 percent of all United States births and 
        the Title X Family Planning program serves over 5,000,000 low-income men 
        and women a year who often do not have insurance or qualify for 
        Medicaid;
Whereas there have been numerous attempts, both legal and legislative, to allow 
        insurance companies and employers with personal religious or moral 
        objections to deny women the Affordable Care Act preventive services 
        benefit requiring coverage for all FDA approved contraceptive methods, 
        despite the fact that such services are based on a foundation of 
        scientific, medical evidence supporting the effectiveness of preventive 
        services;
Whereas over-the-counter emergency contraception is not available to all women, 
        even though the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and 
        the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend increased access to 
        emergency contraception, without an age restriction, as a back-up birth 
        control option, as research shows it prevents unintended pregnancies and 
        reduces the need for abortion;
Whereas a lack of adequate prenatal care increases the risks of having low 
        birth-weight or preterm babies, neonatal mortality, infant mortality, 
        and maternal mortality;
Whereas preterm births alone costs the United States health care system 
        $26,000,000,000 annually;
Whereas many women lack access to comprehensive, affordable insurance coverage, 
        even though all women should have this for all pregnancy-related care, 
        including prenatal care, miscarriage management, family planning 
        services, abortion, labor and delivery services, and postnatal care;
Whereas in 2012, State legislatures passed 43 laws in 19 States to restrict 
        access to abortion, the second-highest number of such measures passed in 
        a single year;
Whereas efforts have been made to ban Graduate Medical Education funding from 
        going towards abortion training, even though the Accreditation Council 
        for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) standards stipulate that programs 
        in obstetrics and gynecology must have an established curriculum for 
        family planning and managing complications of abortions, and must 
        provide the opportunity for direct procedural training in abortions for 
        those residents who desire it;
Whereas legislators have attempted to inappropriately interfere with the 
        patient-physician relationship, often to satisfy political agendas 
        without regard to established, evidence-based guidelines for care;
Whereas this type of interference can inhibit open and honest communication 
        between patients and providers and also jeopardize patient safety;
Whereas exposure to environmental toxicants has the potential to impact the 
        health of women, and the health of future generations;
Whereas intimate partner violence affects 1,500,000 women each year and 324,000 
        pregnant women each year; the direct effects can include miscarriage and 
        fetal injury or death, and the indirect effects can include delayed 
        prenatal care, smoking, and drug and alcohol abuse;
Whereas there is a known link between intimate partner violence and reproductive 
        coercion, which occurs whenever a partner tries to stop a woman from 
        making her own decisions about pregnancy, such as interfering with 
        contraception use, forcing sex, or pressuring her to continue or end a 
        pregnancy;
Whereas a woman must be supported not only in the decision to carry a pregnancy 
        to term, but be empowered to navigate the complexities of parenthood 
        including the role as primary, and in some cases the sole breadwinner, 
        active caregiver, employee trying to fulfill their job responsibilities, 
        and primary health care decision maker within the family;
Whereas 80 percent of all caregivers are women, and approximately half of those 
        women provide care and support for both children under the age of 18 and 
        an older relative, and make health care decisions for at least one other 
        person in the household besides themselves;
Whereas women are now the sole breadwinners or co-breadwinners in the majority 
        of United States households;
Whereas the lack of pay equity forces women to choose between necessities for 
        their family, like food, shelter, and clothing, and critical health care 
        needs for family members in the home;
Whereas 43 percent of working women lack the workplace flexibility or have 
        family friendly workplace policies that ensure that they can provide for 
        their family during medical emergencies, effectively use the 
        preventative health care services available to them and their 
        dependents, and stay in the workforce as long as necessary to provide 
        financial stability for their family;
Whereas less than half of working women have access to any paid parental leave, 
        while paid leave after the birth of a child leads to better health 
        outcomes, higher rates of breastfeeding and for longer duration, and 
        better maternal employment outcomes and higher wages;
Whereas more than 40 percent of working women do not have a single earned sick 
        day to care for themselves or their family;
Whereas the Pregnancy Discrimination Act prevents discrimination of pregnant 
        women in the workplace, yet many women still face pregnancy 
        discrimination, such as being denied requests for reasonable workplace 
        accommodations to continue working while pregnant; and
Whereas women rely on Social Security for a larger share of their retirement 
        income including 23 percent of older women who rely on Social Security 
        for 100 percent of their income: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives supports efforts to--
            (1) make improving women's health a priority in the 113th 
        Congress;
            (2) ensure that all women have access to the best 
        available, scientifically based health care;
            (3) ensure that women have access to safe childbearing, 
        with resources available to reduce maternal and infant 
        morbidity and mortality;
            (4) ensure that women 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;
            (5) ensure that women have access to affordable insurance 
        coverage for all of their pregnancy-related health care needs, 
        including contraception and abortion, as well as for their 
        general health care needs including coverage through Medicare, 
        Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act;
            (6) work to end gender discrimination and improve the 
        health of women by implementing the Affordable Care Act;
            (7) ensure that women have autonomous decisionmaking, 
        informed consent, privacy, and confidentiality regarding their 
        health care;
            (8) work to end health disparities for women, including 
        with regard to ethnicity, race, gender, and sexual orientation;
            (9) ensure that women are able to participate equally in 
        ethically conducted clinical research;
            (10) work to end gender-based violence, which 
        disproportionately affects women, including transgender women;
            (11) ensure parents have and can use earned sick days to 
        care for one's self or one's family, have paid leave to prepare 
        for and recover from pregnancy and childbirth and to care for 
        their children or a loved one, and may receive a social 
        security credit if they are forced to leave the workforce to 
        care for a child or a loved one;
            (12) eliminate discrimination and promote women's health 
        and economic security by ensuring reasonable workplace 
        accommodations for workers whose ability to perform the 
        functions of a job are limited by pregnancy, childbirth, or a 
        related medical condition;
            (13) ensure that women receive equal pay for equal work; 
        and
            (14) ensure that older women have the resources needed to 
        guarantee their financial and economic security as they age.
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