•HRES 915 IH 
able public and nonprofit private entities to plan and de-
velop comprehensive programs that provide these family 
planning services; 
Whereas the title X family planning program serves 4 million 
people each year, many of whom would otherwise be un-
able to access this healthcare; 
Whereas the title X family planning program helps ensure 
that every person, regardless of where they live, how 
much money they make, their background, or whether or 
not they have health insurance, has access to basic, pre-
ventive reproductive healthcare, such as birth control, 
cancer screenings, STD testing and treatment, and well- 
woman exams; 
Whereas title X serves a racially and ethnically diverse pa-
tient base: at least 1⁄3 of patients are people of color and 
13 percent have limited proficiency in English; 
Whereas for decades, people receiving services supported by 
the title X program have been given the full range of in-
formation they need 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 patients’ ability to make fully 
informed healthcare decisions; 
Whereas the American Medical Association states in its Code 
of Medical Ethics that providers should ‘‘present relevant 
information accurately and sensitively, in keeping with 
the patient’s preferences’’ and that ‘‘withholding informa-
tion without the patient’s knowledge or consent is ethi-
cally unacceptable’’; 
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•HRES 915 IH 
Whereas the seminal 1982 Report of the President’s Commis-
sion for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and 
in Biomedical and Behavioral Research states 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 opin-
ion’’; 
Whereas any policy that denies patients seeking care from 
title X-supported providers full and accurate information 
on and referral for healthcare services including abortion 
care violates basic medical ethics by forcing providers to 
withhold healthcare information from patients, and by 
denying patients’ basic right to informed consent; 
Whereas healthcare providers participating in the title X fam-
ily planning program must not have limitations on pro-
viding full and accurate information in order to commu-
nicate freely and exercise the provider’s medical judgment 
to provide the safest and most beneficial medical treat-
ment to the individual patient; and 
Whereas any policy that seeks to prevent healthcare providers 
participating in the title X family planning program from 
providing full and accurate information and referral for 
healthcare services threatens patient health, discourages 
honest conversation, and undermines the vital relation-
ship between providers and patients, who rely upon their 
providers for complete and accurate information: Now, 
therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) recognizes that patients’ health should al-
ways come first, including that patients be able to 
rely on their medical providers to get medically accu-
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•HRES 915 IH 
rate and evidence-based information about their full 
range of healthcare options, including information 
about access to safe and legal abortion; 
(2) urges the development and maintenance of 
trust between patients and healthcare providers by 
protecting providers’ ability to give complete medical 
advice and information, in order to ensure no harm 
to patient health; 
(3) encourages efforts to enhance patient qual-
ity of care and access to confidential and safe care 
for all patients; 
(4) supports efforts to promote the healthcare 
safety net; 
(5) recognizes that any nationwide gag rule 
prohibiting information flow between patient and 
provider represents a radical departure from how 
healthcare has operated in the United States, which 
fundamentally erodes patients’ right to informed 
consent, and providers’ ability to provide appropriate 
and adequate healthcare and information; and 
(6) opposes efforts seeking to limit access to 
and full information on reproductive healthcare op-
tions in contradiction with congressional intent for 
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•HRES 915 IH 
the family planning program under title X of the 
Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300 et seq.). 
Æ 
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