•HCON 109 IH 
basic human right to determine freely and responsibly the 
number and spacing of their children’’; 
Whereas access to contraceptives in the United States is rec-
ognized as a fundamental right under the constitutional 
right to privacy through the Supreme Court’s decisions in 
Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965) and 
Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438 (1972); 
Whereas the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
(CDC) recognized family planning in its published list of 
the ‘‘Ten Greatest Public Health Achievements in the 
20th Century’’; 
Whereas target 3.7 of the United Nations Sustainable Devel-
opment Goals (SDGs), which was adopted by the United 
States and 192 other United Nations (UN) member 
states, calls on countries ‘‘by 2030, to ensure universal 
access to sexual and reproductive health-care services, in-
cluding for family planning, information and education, 
and the integration of reproductive health into national 
strategies and programs’’; 
Whereas certain barrier methods of contraception, specifically 
condoms, decreases the spread of sexually transmitted in-
fections (STIs) and could eliminate the 3,500,000 annual 
cases of infertility in low- and middle-income countries 
that are caused by untreated gonorrhea or chlamydia; 
Whereas the ability of individuals to control the number and 
spacing of their children reduces rates of unintended 
pregnancies, unsafe abortions and maternal deaths; 
Whereas in economically developing countries, public health 
experts estimate that access to contraceptives would re-
sult in 76,000,000 fewer unintended pregnancies, 
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26,000,000 fewer unsafe abortions, and 186,000 fewer 
maternal deaths; 
Whereas in the United States due to discrimination, signifi-
cant racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities exist in 
sexual and reproductive health, particularly in maternal 
mortality and morbidity and infant mortality with Black, 
American Indian, and Alaska Native women two to three 
times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes 
than White women; 
Whereas contraceptive choices are unduly influenced by struc-
tural racism, gender discrimination, and socioeconomic 
barriers; 
Whereas research shows that both historically and today, 
medical racism has resulted in experiments on commu-
nities of color, such as the misleading and eugenics-based 
birth control trials on Puerto Rican women in the 1950s 
and the development of modern gynecology through the 
experimentation and exploitation of enslaved Black 
women beginning in the 1840s, has contributed to per-
sistent feelings of mistrust among Black women regard-
ing their ability to access high-quality sexual and repro-
ductive health care; 
Whereas effective contraception has been shown to be an im-
portant strategy to maintaining and improving mental 
health and well-being for women and other individuals 
who have the capacity to get pregnant; 
Whereas planning, delaying, and spacing births helps people 
achieve their education, career, and life goals; 
Whereas young women with access to the pill before age 21 
graduated from college in significantly higher numbers 
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than did women of the same era who came of age before 
the pill was available to them; 
Whereas children born to women with access to United States 
federally funded family planning programs, which in-
crease access to affordable contraception and family plan-
ning services, were more likely to complete at least 12, 
13, and 16 years of schooling, and had 2-percent higher 
family incomes as adults; 
Whereas globally, access to contraception increases labor 
force participation, boosting economic health and pros-
perity of economically developing communities; 
Whereas many women face challenges in accessing birth con-
trol and using it effectively, and globally, 218,000,000 
women in economically developing countries have an 
unmet need for modern contraception; 
Whereas in the United States, one-third of adult United 
States women who have ever tried to obtain prescription 
contraception reported barriers to access; 
Whereas one barrier to access is an appropriately trained, lin-
guistically appropriate, and culturally competent repro-
ductive health care workforce including primary care and 
other providers to ensure that all patients have access to 
a contraceptive method of their choice including highly 
effective reversible contraception methods; 
Whereas more than 19,000,000 women of reproductive age in 
the United States are in need of publicly funded contra-
ception and live in a contraceptive desert where they lack 
reasonable access in their county to a health center that 
offers the full range of contraceptive methods; 
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Whereas 12 States in America allow some health care pro-
viders to refuse to provide services related to contracep-
tion; 
Whereas studies show that preventing young adults from ac-
cessing contraceptives puts teens at risk of unintended 
pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, including 
HIV; 
Whereas emergency contraception is a safe way to prevent 
pregnancy after unprotected sex, but 9 States in America 
have adopted restrictions on emergency contraception by 
excluding emergency contraception from a State’s family 
planning program, contraceptive coverage mandate, or by 
allowing pharmacists to refuse to dispense emergency 
contraceptives; 
Whereas according to the UN, globally, 19 percent of govern-
ments apply one or more restrictions on contraceptive ac-
cess, and these include restrictions on the age and mar-
ital status of the person seeking access to contraception, 
parental consent, and restrictions on access to emergency 
contraceptive pills or sterilization; 
Whereas researchers have found some women of color experi-
ence implicit and explicit racism when interacting with 
the medical system, lack of quality information about ef-
fective family planning methods, and an inability to ac-
cess or afford reproductive health care; 
Whereas while comprehensive sex education has been proven 
to reduce rates of unintended pregnancy and STIs, and 
include outcomes of appreciation of sexual diversity, dat-
ing and intimate partner violence prevention, develop-
ment of healthy relationships, prevention of child sex 
abuse, improved social and emotional learning, and in-
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creased media literacy, but only 20 States and the Dis-
trict of Columbia require sex education to include infor-
mation on birth control; 
Whereas globally, many countries have made advances in de-
veloping policies to improve access to comprehensive sex 
education, however, there remain significant gaps be-
tween global and regional policies and implementation on 
the ground such as limited teacher training capacity; 
Whereas existing research highlights uninsured women were 
30 percent less likely to report using prescription contra-
ceptive methods than women with private or public health 
insurance and women identify affordability among the 
top three factors in determining which contraception to 
use; 
Whereas LGBTQ+ individuals, particularly transgender indi-
viduals undergoing transition, experience unique barriers 
to contraception access such as fragmentation of health 
services, discrimination from providers, and insurance 
issues, all of which can be exacerbated by racism and 
intersecting oppression; 
Whereas there are continued efforts to defund or eliminate 
contraceptive programs and falsely conflating emergency 
contraceptives and intrauterine devices with abortion, 
even though they are proven to reduce unintended preg-
nancies; 
Whereas reproductive justice is the human right to maintain 
personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have chil-
dren, and parent the children we have in safe and sus-
tainable communities; 
Whereas people of color, indigenous people, immigrant com-
munities, and people with disabilities have been exploited 
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in the service of contraceptive development, and been co-
erced into using contraception, or sterilized against their 
will, yet still face barriers to accessing contraception 
when they need it; and 
Whereas Congress has repeatedly recognized the importance 
of women’s ability to access contraceptives through sup-
port for the Medicaid program, title X of the Public 
Health Service Act, and the Federal Employees Health 
Benefits Program: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
concurring), That— 
(1) it is the sense of Congress that Congress 
and the Administration should take further steps to 
ensure that all people have universal, expansive, 
high-quality access to free or affordable contracep-
tion; 
(2) Congress and the Administration should en-
sure all people capable of pregnancy have the auton-
omy to decide whether to have children, the number 
and spacing of their children, and to have medically 
accurate information, education, and access to 
health services to make these decisions and pursue 
reproductive justice; 
(3) Congress and the Administration should ex-
amine and support ways to expand comprehensive 
access to contraception, including studying contra-
ceptive deserts, new evidence-based methods and in-
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novations, and whether Federal policy solutions can 
address these issues; 
(4) Congress and the Administration should en-
sure people have access to affordable, comprehen-
sive, consistent insurance coverage for all their re-
productive health care needs, including contraception 
and abortion; 
(5) Congress and the Administration should ex-
pand training of counseling, provision, and followup 
care for all forms of highly effective reversible con-
traception methods to primary care physicians to in-
crease access to the most effective forms of birth 
control available; 
(6) Congress aligns with scientific perspective 
that ‘‘contraception’’ includes all current and future 
Food and Drug Administration-approved, -granted, 
or -cleared methods, including those available by 
prescription and over-the-counter, and the World 
Health Organization defines contraception to include 
female and male sterilization, the intrauterine device 
(IUD), the implant, injectables, oral contraceptive 
pills, external and internal condoms, vaginal barrier 
methods (including the diaphragm, cervical cap, and 
spermicidal 
foam, 
jelly, 
cream, 
and 
sponge), 
lactational amenorrhea method (LAM), emergency 
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contraception, and other modern methods not re-
ported separately (for example, the contraceptive 
patch or vaginal ring); 
(7) Congress and the Administration should en-
sure that laws governing contraception access are 
evidence-based and grounded in accurate medical in-
formation; 
(8) Congress and the Administration should 
work to end reproductive health disparities, includ-
ing with regard to ethnicity, race, gender identity, 
and sexual orientation; 
(9) Congress and the Administration should 
work to end gender-based violence, which dispropor-
tionately affects women, including transgender 
women; 
(10) Congress and the Administration should 
expand comprehensive and gender-inclusive sex edu-
cation and patient-centered counseling, which in-
cludes accurate, age-appropriate information about 
one’s body, sexual and reproductive health, methods 
of contraception, access, and human rights; 
(11) Congress and the Administration should 
ensure that United States foreign assistance includes 
support for contraception services, safe abortion 
services, and quality postabortion care, and domestic 
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assistance includes support for contraception serv-
ices through title X family planning providers and 
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; and 
(12) this Congress does not support any policies 
that undermine the effectiveness of domestic and 
global programs and supports additional funding for 
global and domestic programs that increase access to 
contraception such as those under title X, Medicaid, 
Federal health care providers, and the United States 
Agency for International Development’s Office of 
Population and Reproductive Health. 
Æ 
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