[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 104 (Thursday, June 20, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4167-S4168]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS

  The following petitions and memorials were laid before the Senate and 
were referred or ordered to lie on the table as indicated:

       POM-95. A concurrent resolution adopted by the Legislature 
     of the State of Louisiana urging the United States Congress 
     to provide adequate funding to the United States Army Corps 
     of Engineers for the completion of the proposed project to 
     deepen the Mississippi River Ship Channel to fifty feet; to 
     the Committee on Environment and Public Works.

                  Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 131

       Whereas, deepening of the Mississippi River Ship Channel to 
     fifty feet is a historic infrastructure project that is vital 
     to our nation's economic prosperity; and
       Whereas, the expansion of the Panama Canal has made it 
     imperative to improve access on the Mississippi River for 
     larger Post-Panamax ships for export and import of goods; and
       Whereas, the United States Army Corps of Engineers and the 
     state of Louisiana desire deepening the Mississippi River 
     Ship Channel to fifty feet; and
       Whereas. the project is approved and awaiting federal 
     funding; and
       Whereas. thirty-one states will receive economic benefits 
     by the enhanced water carrying capacity of the Mississippi 
     River Ship Channel, also known as the gateway to America's 
     Heartland; and
       Whereas, the Mississippi River Ship Channel and tributaries 
     currently account for seven hundred fifty billion dollars of 
     the nation's economy and two million four hundred thousand 
     jobs; and
       Whereas, each new additional foot of water draft will 
     account for an additional one million dollars in cargo on a 
     vessel. Therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Legislature of Louisiana memorializes 
     the Congress of the United States to provide adequate funding 
     to the United States Army Corps of Engineers for the 
     completion of the proposed project to deepen the Mississippi 
     River Ship Channel to fifty feet.
       Resolved, That a copy of this Resolution shall be 
     transmitted to the secretary of the United States Senate and 
     the clerk of the United States House of Representatives, to 
     each member of the Louisiana delegation to the United States 
     Congress, the assistant secretary of the Army for Civil 
     Works, the commander of the United States Army Corps of 
     Engineers New Orleans District, and the governor.

[[Page S4168]]

     
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       POM-96. A concurrent resolution adopted by the Legislature 
     of the State of Louisiana urging the United States Congress 
     to review the definition of abortion and the use of the term 
     abortion for medical purposes of medical records when a woman 
     has a spontaneous miscarriage; to the Committee on Health, 
     Education, Labor, and Pensions.

                  Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 130

       Whereas. a spontaneous miscarriage is the unavoidable and 
     untreatable process of naturally ending a pregnancy before 
     the twentieth week of gestation; and
       Whereas, according to national estimates, approximately 
     fifteen to twenty percent of all pregnancies in the United 
     States end in miscarriage; and
       Whereas, according to the American College of Obstetricians 
     and Gynecologists, roughly sixty percent of miscarriages 
     occur when an embryo has an abnormal number of chromosomes 
     during fertilization, a problem that happens by chance, not 
     as a result of anything the parents did: and
       Whereas, the devastation and grief associated with a 
     miscarriage leave women to feel as though they had done 
     something wrong to cause it; and
       Whereas, the trauma is compounded by physicians, hospitals, 
     clinics, health insurers, and other healthcare providers 
     interchangeably using medical terminology such as abortion, 
     spontaneous abortion, missed abortion, inevitable abortion, 
     incomplete abortion, or septic abortion with spontaneous 
     miscarriage; and
       Whereas, towards the end of the last century, medical 
     journals and healthcare professionals consciously began using 
     the term spontaneous miscarriage instead of abortion as both 
     an intuitive empathetic response to the stigma of abortion 
     and as a reflection of legal, technological, professional, 
     and social developments relative to women who experience 
     miscarriage: and
       Whereas, despite the evolution and clinical clarity of the 
     use of the term spontaneous miscarriage, many women are 
     horrified to find that the medical diagnosis or condition 
     listed in their patient medical record indicates abortion; 
     and
       Whereas, although not technically incorrect based on 
     customary and acceptable medical terminology, the use of the 
     term abortion has a widely recognized modern day implication 
     of intentionally causing the death of an unborn child; and
       Whereas, charting, coding, and billing systems include 
     Current Procedures Terminology (CPT) codes, International 
     Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health 
     Problems, 9th revision (ICD-9), diagnosis-related group (DRG) 
     codes, and other diagnosis and procedure codes utilized in 
     the United States healthcare system; and
       Whereas, a conscious and collective assessment needs to be 
     done at the highest level of regulatory authority in the 
     United States to provide for definitive and distinctive use 
     of the terms spontaneous miscarriage versus abortion: 
     Therefore, be it Resolved, That the Legislature of Louisiana 
     memorializes the Congress of the United States to review the 
     definition of abortion and the use of the term abortion for 
     purposes of medical records when a woman has a spontaneous 
     miscarriage; and be it further
       Resolved, That a copy of this Resolution shall be 
     transmitted to the secretary of the United States Senate, the 
     clerk of the United States House of Representatives, and to 
     each member of the Louisiana delegation to the United States 
     Congress.
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