[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 526 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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115th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. RES. 526

    Expressing the sense of the Senate that politicians should not 
 interfere with a woman's personal health care decisions or attempt to 
 prevent providers from offering their full medical recommendations to 
                            their patients.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 24, 2018

 Mrs. Murray (for herself, Ms. Baldwin, and Mrs. Gillibrand) submitted 
   the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 
                 Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
    Expressing the sense of the Senate that politicians should not 
 interfere with a woman's personal health care decisions or attempt to 
 prevent providers from offering their full medical recommendations to 
                            their patients.

Whereas, since the enactment of title X of the Public Health Service Act (42 
        U.S.C. 300 et seq.) (referred to in this preamble as the ``title X 
        family planning program'') nearly half a century ago, the title X family 
        planning program has provided family planning and related preventive 
        health care services to those most in need and has enjoyed broad 
        bipartisan support;
Whereas the title X family planning program was created to assist in making 
        comprehensive voluntary family planning services readily available to 
        all individuals desiring those services and to enable public and 
        nonprofit private entities to plan and develop comprehensive programs 
        that provide those family planning services;
Whereas the title X family planning program serves 4,000,000 individuals each 
        year, many of whom would otherwise be unable to access the types of 
        health care services supported under the title X family planning 
        program;
Whereas the title X family planning program helps ensure that every individual, 
        regardless of where the individual lives, how much money the individual 
        earns, the background of the individual, or whether or not the 
        individual has health insurance, has access to basic, preventive 
        reproductive health care, such as birth control, cancer screenings, 
        sexually transmitted disease testing and treatment, and well-woman 
        exams;
Whereas the title X family planning program serves a racially and ethnically 
        diverse patient base, not less than \1/3\ of patients served under the 
        title X family planning program are people of color, and 13 percent of 
        patients served under the title X family planning program have limited 
        proficiency in English;
Whereas, for decades, individuals receiving services supported under the title X 
        family planning program have been given the full range of information 
        needed to make fully informed decisions about their own pregnancy 
        options, including access to safe and legal abortion;
Whereas efforts to stigmatize abortion care and providers of abortion care 
        undermine the ability of patients to make fully informed health care 
        decisions;
Whereas the Code of Medical Ethics of the American Medical Association states 
        that health care providers should ``[p]resent relevant information 
        accurately and sensitively, in keeping with the patient's preferences'' 
        and that ``withholding information without the patient's knowledge or 
        consent is ethically unacceptable'';
Whereas the 1982 report of the President's Commission for the Study of Ethical 
        Problems in Medicine and in Biomedical and Behavioral Research stated 
        that, ``a physician is obliged to mention all alternative treatments, 
        including those he or she does not provide or favor, so long as they are 
        supported by respectable medical opinion'';
Whereas any policy that denies a patient seeking care from a health care 
        provider receiving support under the title X family planning program 
        full and accurate information on and referral for health care services, 
        including abortion care, violates basic medical ethics by forcing the 
        health care provider to withhold health care information from the 
        patient and by denying the basic right of the patient to informed 
        consent;
Whereas health care providers receiving support under the title X family 
        planning program must not be subject to any limitation on providing full 
        and accurate information so that those health care providers may 
        communicate freely with patients and exercise their medical judgment in 
        order to provide the safest and most beneficial medical treatment for 
        each patient; and
Whereas any policy that seeks to prevent health care providers receiving support 
        under the title X family planning program from providing full and 
        accurate information and referral for health care services threatens 
        patient health, discourages honest conversation, and undermines the 
        vital relationship between health care providers and patients, who rely 
        on their health care providers for complete and accurate information: 
        Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate--
            (1) to recognize that the health of a patient should always 
        come first and patients must be able to rely on their health 
        care providers for medically accurate and evidence-based 
        information about the full range of health care options, 
        including information about access to safe and legal abortion;
            (2) to urge the development and maintenance of trust 
        between patients and health care providers by protecting the 
        ability of health care providers to give complete medical 
        advice and information in order to ensure no harm to patient 
        health;
            (3) to encourage efforts to enhance patient quality of care 
        and access to confidential and safe care for all patients;
            (4) to support efforts to promote the health care safety 
        net;
            (5) to recognize that any nationwide gag rule prohibiting 
        information flow between patients and health care providers 
        represents a radical departure from how health care has 
        operated in the United States and fundamentally erodes the 
        right of patients to informed consent and the ability of health 
        care providers to provide appropriate and adequate health care 
        and information; and
            (6) to oppose efforts seeking to limit access to, and full 
        information on, reproductive health care options in 
        contradiction with the congressional intent underlying title X 
        of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300 et seq.).
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