Ensuring Access to Contraceptives Act of 2006 - Amends the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to direct the President, through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), to furnish assistance to provide contraceptives in developing countries in order to prevent unintended pregnancies, abortions, and the transmission of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS.
States that a nongovernmental organization shall not be subject to eligibility requirements relating to the use of non-U.S. government funds that are more restrictive than those that apply to a foreign government.
[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4736 Introduced in House (IH)]
109th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 4736
To amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to authorize assistance to
provide contraceptives in developing countries in order to prevent
unintended pregnancies, abortions, and the transmission of sexually
transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 8, 2006
Mr. Simmons (for himself, Mr. Moore of Kansas, Mrs. Biggert, Mr. Kirk,
Mr. Oberstar, Mr. Ryan of Ohio, Mr. Michaud, and Mr. Snyder) introduced
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on
International Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to authorize assistance to
provide contraceptives in developing countries in order to prevent
unintended pregnancies, abortions, and the transmission of sexually
transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Ensuring Access to Contraceptives
Act of 2006''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.
(a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
(1) A deepening crisis in developing countries with respect
to the availability of contraceptives needed for family
planning, safe motherhood services, HIV/AIDS prevention, and
other vital reproductive health care threatens the health and
lives of millions of people.
(2) In the next ten to fifteen years, the largest-ever
generation of young people will enter their reproductive years.
For example, the number of women of reproductive age is
projected to double in Nigeria in the next 25 years. This
demographic shift, combined with increased demand for modern
methods of family planning, will increase worldwide the number
of people who desire to use contraception by 40 percent.
(3) The gap between the need for contraceptives and funding
for such contraceptives is projected to reach hundreds of
millions of United States dollars annually by 2015.
(4) According to estimates based on national surveys, more
than 200 million women in developing countries wish to delay or
end childbearing but do not have access to modern
contraceptives.
(5) An estimated 40 percent of married couples in Haiti, 36
percent of married couples in Ethiopia, and 32 percent of
married couples in Pakistan do not have access to
contraceptives. In each of these countries, average birth rates
among women are two to three times average birth rates in the
United States.
(6) Access to family planning and contraceptives is
essential in reducing unintended pregnancies and, as a result,
reducing rates of abortion.
(7) The provision of modern contraceptives to the more than
200 million women in developing countries who desire such
contraceptives would avert approximately 52 million pregnancies
each year, and as a result, would prevent an estimated 23
million unplanned births, 22 million induced abortions, 7
million spontaneous abortions, 1.4 million infant deaths,
142,000 pregnancy-related deaths, and 505,000 children from
losing their mothers.
(8) In January 2001, the White House reaffirmed President
George W. Bush's commitment to United States family planning
assistance efforts, stating that ``[the President] knows that
one of the best ways to prevent abortion is by providing
quality voluntary family planning services''.
(9) Experiences in a number of countries in recent years
indicate that when long-term, effective family planning methods
are available, abortion rates decline, sometimes drastically.
For example, between 1988 and 2001, the use of modern
contraceptives increased in Russia by 74 percent, while the
abortion rate declined by 61 percent. Similar experiences in
Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Chile, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, and
Romania have shown that increased use of contraceptives is
accompanied by a decline in abortion rates.
(10) In addition to reducing unintended pregnancies and
abortions, condoms are a vital component in limiting the spread
of HIV/AIDS. Consequently, the HIV/AIDS pandemic is
contributing to an increased demand for reproductive health
supplies.
(11) The vast majority of HIV infections are sexually
transmitted and condoms are currently the only contraceptive
that can protect against this form of HIV transmission. Condoms
remain an important intervention in multisectoral approaches to
HIV/AIDS prevention, along with programs that promote
abstinence and monogamy.
(12) In sub-Saharan Africa, where HIV prevalence rates can
reach 40 percent of the adult population and women constitute
60 percent of people living with HIV/AIDS, donors provide an
average of only 4.6 condoms per adult male annually.
(13) Family planning services, reinforced by dependable
supplies of contraceptives, are also a crucial tool in reducing
HIV infections transmitted between infected pregnant women and
their infants, a number that reached 800,000 in 2002. The
provision of family planning services, information, and
counseling can reduce the number of infants infected with HIV
by 35 to 45 percent.
(14) In addition to reducing rates of abortion and HIV/
AIDS, access to contraceptives and other reproductive health
care services saves the lives of mothers and children by
helping women avoid high risk pregnancies. An increase in the
use of contraceptives, which allow women to space the births of
their children over safe intervals, have been proven to reduce
maternal and child mortality.
(15) Complications resulting from pregnancy and childbirth
are the leading causes of death and disability for women in
developing countries, resulting in more than 500,000 deaths
each year. Almost one-third of maternal deaths and illnesses
related to pregnancy could be avoided if women in developing
countries had access to modern, safe, and effective
contraceptives and other reproductive health care services.
(16) Access to contraceptives and other reproductive health
care services are also needed to help ease growing population
pressures on cropland, freshwater, and other finite natural
resources. In many biologically rich areas, there is little or
no access to the health services that allow women and couples
to space or limit births. Consequently, the population in these
ecologically sensitive areas is growing nearly 40 percent
faster than that of the world as a whole.
(17) The shortfall in reproductive health care services is
chronic and growing. The cost of contraceptives needed for
family planning and HIV/AIDS prevention in developing countries
is projected to increase from $954 million in 2002 to $1.8
billion in 2015. In spite of this upward trend in the cost of
contraceptives, donor support for contraceptives in 2002,
$197.5 million, was less than 20 percent of current overall
funding needs.
(18) The consequences of the shortfall in reproductive
health care services are devastating. For every shortfall of $1
million in funding for contraceptives, an estimated 360,000
additional unintended pregnancies, 150,000 additional induced
abortions, 800 additional maternal deaths, and 11,000
additional infant deaths occur.
(19) Although the United States should be commended for its
leadership role with respect to the availability of
reproductive health services in developing countries, United
States support for such services, including funding, has not
kept pace with the increase in demand for contraceptives, which
has resulted from the large number of youth entering
reproductive age and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Since 1995, United
States bilateral assistance for international family planning
programs has decreased by 35 percent (adjusted for inflation)
despite an increase of more than 225 million women of
reproductive age worldwide.
(20) In addition to the shortfall in funding by the United
States for reproductive health care services, United States
policy restrictions have reduced donations of contraceptives
for developing countries.
(21) Widely shared goals of reducing the need for abortion
and reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS are unlikely to be achieved
when United States-donated contraceptives are subject to policy
restrictions, such as the Mexico City Policy, that limit access
to such contraceptives.
(22) The Mexico City Policy, which was reinstated in 2001,
limits access to contraceptives by prohibiting United States
family planning assistance to foreign nongovernmental
organizations that use funding from any source to provide
abortion services, counseling, or referral or to lobby to make
abortion legal or more available in their own country.
(23) The Mexico City Policy has exacerbated the existing
shortage of contraceptives by ending shipments of United
States-donated contraceptives to 16 developing countries in
Africa, Asia, and the Middle East and denying contraceptives to
leading family planning agencies in another 12 countries.
(24) As an example, the Mexico City Policy has forced eight
family planning clinics serving thousands of poor women in
Kenya to close. Consequently, women's access to contraceptives,
gynecologic and obstetric care, screening, and treatment for
sexually transmitted infections, and voluntary counseling and
testing for HIV/AIDS in Kenya has been severely disrupted.
(b) Purpose.--The purpose of this Act is to authorize assistance to
provide contraceptives in developing countries in order to prevent
unintended pregnancies, abortions, and the transmission of sexually
transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS.
SEC. 3. ASSISTANCE TO PROVIDE CONTRACEPTIVES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES.
Section 104 of Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151b) is
amended--
(1) by redesignating subsection (g) as subsection (h); and
(2) by inserting after subsection (f) the following new
subsection:
``(g) Assistance to Provide Contraceptives in Developing
Countries.--
``(1) Assistance.--The President, acting through the
Administrator of the United States Agency for International
Development, shall furnish assistance to provide contraceptives
in developing countries in order to prevent unintended
pregnancies, abortions, and the transmission of sexually
transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS.
``(2) Eligibility of nongovernmental organizations.--
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, regulation, or
policy, in determining eligibility for assistance to provide
contraceptives in developing countries under this subsection, a
nongovernmental organization shall not be subject to
requirements relating to the use of non-United States
Government funds that are more restrictive than requirements
relating to the use of non-United States Government funds that
apply to foreign governments with respect to eligibility for
assistance under this subsection.
``(3) Authorization of appropriations.--
``(A) In general.--There are authorized to be
appropriated to the President to carry out this
subsection $150,000,000 for each of the fiscal years
2007 and 2008.
``(B) Additional authorities.--Amounts appropriated
pursuant to the authorization of appropriations under
subparagraph (A)--
``(i) may be referred to as the
`Reproductive Health Supplies Fund';
``(ii) are authorized to remain available
until expended; and
``(iii) are in addition to amounts
otherwise available for such purposes.''.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on International Relations.
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