[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Page 8723]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




SENATE RESOLUTION 193--CELEBRATING THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE HISTORIC 
  GRISWOLD V. CONNECTICUT DECISION OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED 
  STATES AND EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE THAT THE CASE WAS AN 
IMPORTANT STEP FORWARD IN HELPING ENSURE THAT ALL PEOPLE OF THE UNITED 
  STATES ARE ABLE TO USE CONTRACEPTIVES TO PLAN PREGNANCIES AND HAVE 
                            HEALTHIER BABIES

  Mr. BLUMENTHAL (for himself, Mrs. Boxer, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Brown, Ms. 
Hirono, Mr. Menendez, Ms. Warren, Mrs. Gillibrand, Mr. Booker, Mrs. 
Feinstein, Mr. Schatz, Mr. Coons, Mr. King, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Franken, 
Mr. Warner, Mr. Whitehouse, Mr. Schumer, Mr. Kaine, Mr. Sanders, Mr. 
Durbin, Mr. Markey, Mr. Merkley, and Ms. Baldwin) submitted the 
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Health, 
Education, Labor, and Pensions:

                              S. Res. 193

       Whereas, prior to the landmark decision of the Supreme 
     Court of the United States in Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 
     U.S. 479 (1965), married women in many States were lawfully 
     forbidden from using family planning tools such as 
     contraceptives and condoms;
       Whereas the historic Griswold case provided precedent for 
     future cases in the Supreme Court that extended the right to 
     use contraceptives to all women, regardless of marital 
     status;
       Whereas, since Griswold, millions of women have used 
     contraceptives to plan pregnancies, resulting in healthier 
     women, healthier pregnancies, healthier families, and greater 
     financial security for families;
       Whereas, despite having the legal right to use 
     contraceptives, many women who need family planning and 
     sexual health services still face financial and other 
     barriers to getting the necessary care;
       Whereas, because of limited access to affordable family 
     planning services, low-income women are 5 times more likely 
     to have an unintended pregnancy compared to women with higher 
     incomes, and unintended pregnancy rates are increasing for 
     poor and low-income women while decreasing for women with 
     higher incomes;
       Whereas black and Latino women are disproportionately 
     affected by the lack of access to contraceptives and 
     reproductive health care;
       Whereas programs such as the population research and 
     voluntary family planning programs under title X of the 
     Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300 et seq.) and the 
     Medicaid program under title XIX of the Social Security Act 
     (42 U.S.C. 1396 et seq.) help low-income women access high-
     quality, affordable family planning care, including 
     contraceptives, that helps women plan pregnancies and stay 
     healthy;
       Whereas the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act 
     (Public Law 111-148) is helping realize the promise of 
     Griswold by removing barriers to care by requiring that all 
     insurance providers offer contraceptives and reproductive 
     preventive health care services at no cost to women, and, as 
     of 2014, more than 55,000,0000 women were benefitting from 
     coverage without cost-sharing for preventive services, 
     including birth control, according to the Department of 
     Health and Human Services;
       Whereas, each year, publicly funded contraceptives and 
     family planning services help prevent approximately 2,000,000 
     unplanned pregnancies, 800,000 abortions, 400,000 
     miscarriages, and 200,000 pre-term and low birth rate births;
       Whereas, in 2015, the Institute of Medicine listed using 
     birth control to reduce unintended pregnancies as 1 of 15 
     core measures for furthering health progress and improving 
     health;
       Whereas, as the number of contraceptive methods expands, it 
     is more important than ever that all women have access to the 
     full range of contraceptive methods, including the most 
     effective methods, so that each woman can choose the method 
     that works best for her; and
       Whereas every dollar invested in publicly funded 
     contraceptive saves taxpayers $7.09: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) celebrates the 50th anniversary of the 1965 Griswold v. 
     Connecticut decision of the Supreme Court of the United 
     States;
       (2) recognizes that birth control constitutes basic health 
     care for women;
       (3) recognizes that, despite the monumental Griswold 
     decision, affordable contraceptives unfortunately remain 
     inaccessible to many poor and low-income women;
       (4) encourages robust investment in publicly funded family 
     planning services as a means to help women plan pregnancies 
     and have healthier babies;
       (5) recognizes that investments in publicly funded family 
     planning services help prevent unplanned pregnancies and 
     abortions and help save taxpayer dollars;
       (6) acknowledges that all women, regardless of income or 
     zip code, should have affordable access to the tools that 
     help women plan and space their pregnancies; and
       (7) recognizes the value of the publicly funded family 
     planning safety net in helping to realize the promise of the 
     Griswold decision.

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