IV 

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; 


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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 


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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; 


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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 contraVerDate Mar 15 2010 01:49 Mar 01, 2013 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR94.IH HR94

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ception 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 


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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 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives supports 

2 efforts to— 

3 (1) make improving women’s health a priority 

4 in the 113th Congress; 

5 (2) ensure that all women have access to the 

6 best available, scientifically based health care; 

7 (3) ensure that women have access to safe 

8 childbearing, with resources available to reduce ma9 ternal and infant morbidity and mortality; 

10 (4) ensure that women have the autonomy to 

11 decide whether to have children, the number and 

12 spacing of their children, and to have medically ac13 curate information, education, and access to health 

14 services to make these decisions; 


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1 (5) ensure that women have access to afford2 able insurance coverage for all of their pregnancy-re3 lated health care needs, including contraception and 

4 abortion, as well as for their general health care 

5 needs including coverage through Medicare, Med6 icaid, and the Affordable Care Act; 

7 (6) work to end gender discrimination and im8 prove the health of women by implementing the Af9 fordable Care Act; 

10 (7) ensure that women have autonomous deci11 sionmaking, informed consent, privacy, and con12 fidentiality regarding their health care; 

13 (8) work to end health disparities for women, 

14 including with regard to ethnicity, race, gender, and 

15 sexual orientation; 

16 (9) ensure that women are able to participate 

17 equally in ethically conducted clinical research; 

18 (10) work to end gender-based violence, which 

19 disproportionately affects women, including 

20 transgender women; 

21 (11) ensure parents have and can use earned 

22 sick days to care for one’s self or one’s family, have 

23 paid leave to prepare for and recover from preg24 nancy and childbirth and to care for their children 

25 or a loved one, and may receive a social security 


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1 credit if they are forced to leave the workforce to 

2 care for a child or a loved one; 

3 (12) eliminate discrimination and promote 

4 women’s health and economic security by ensuring 

5 reasonable workplace accommodations for workers 

6 whose ability to perform the functions of a job are 

7 limited by pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical 

8 condition; 

9 (13) ensure that women receive equal pay for 

10 equal work; and 

11 (14) ensure that older women have the re12 sources needed to guarantee their financial and eco13 nomic security as they age. 

Æ 


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