Port Chester, NY – In honor of the kick off of Women's Health Week, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Congresswoman Nita Lowey announced that they will introduce a Congressional resolution in support of strengthening family planning services.

“I believe it’s more important than ever that we fight to protect a woman’s right to make her own decisions about her reproductive health,” Senator Clinton said. “Our resolution will make it clear that Congress recognizes that educating and supporting women so that they do not become pregnant in the first place is one of our most important investments."

“Whether it’s through contraceptive equity, increasing funding for Title X, or encouraging states to expand Medicaid family planning services, expanding access to contraception should be a shared national goal,” said Congresswoman Lowey. “If you are for reducing unintended pregnancies and abortions, than you should be for family planning. It’s as simple as that, and that is exactly what Senator Clinton and I call for in our resolution that we intend to introduce in Congress.”

The Clinton-Lowey resolution calls on all members of Congress to put themselves on the record in support of family planning services and education. The resolution does not cost any money, it simply asks that Congress officially go on the record in support of programs and policies that make it easier for all women at all income levels to obtain contraceptives and use them consistently and correctly over time.

Recently, the non-partisan Guttmacher Institute released a major report revealing the tragic two-tiered system that is steadily emerging in our country. High-income women have quick, convenient access to contraceptives, while low-income women do not and as a result more often become pregnant unintentionally. In fact, a poor woman is four times as likely to experience an unplanned pregnancy as a higher-income woman.

The United States has one of the highest rates of unintended pregnancies in the industrialized world. Half of the 6 million pregnancies in America are unintended, and nearly half of those end in abortion every year. Lack of coverage for contraception and other health care costs result in women of reproductive age paying 68% more in out-of-pocket costs for health care services than do men of the same age.

Furthermore, the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 that passed the Senate in late December placed family planning services in further jeopardy. The new law eliminated a longstanding guarantee, in place since 1972, which guaranteed that all Medicaid enrollees are covered for family planning services and supplies. The new law allows states to offer stripped-down benefit packages to some enrollees—including some parents and pregnant women.

At the press conference Senator Clinton also announced that she will be introducing legislation - the Unintended Pregnancy Reduction Act of 2006 – that will strengthen Medicaid coverage of family planning services, by ensuring that Medicaid coverage for family planning services remains accessible to low-income women.

The Senator’s legislation, which she will introduce with Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), will also amend the Medicaid statute to ensure that states extend coverage for family planning services and supplies to women who would be entitled to Medicaid funded prenatal, labor, delivery and postpartum care.

“I hope my colleagues in the Senate, from both sides of the debate, Republicans and Democrats, join me in ensuring all women have the family planning services they need, so that together we can help to decrease the amount of unintended pregnancies,” Clinton said.

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