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[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 65 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. CON. RES. 65
Commending State and local governments for championing reproductive
rights as human rights.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
December 10, 2025
Ms. Williams of Georgia (for herself, Ms. Adams, Mr. Carter of
Louisiana, Mr. Casar, Ms. McClellan, Mr. Raskin, Ms. Velazquez, Ms.
Chu, Ms. Crockett, Mr. Doggett, Ms. Simon, Ms. Bonamici, Ms. Wilson of
Florida, Mr. Goldman of New York, Mr. Johnson of Georgia, Mr. Casten,
Ms. Sewell, Mr. Evans of Pennsylvania, Ms. Lee of Pennsylvania, Mr.
Huffman, Ms. Kelly of Illinois, Ms. DelBene, Mr. Carson, Mr. Garamendi,
Mrs. Ramirez, Mr. Swalwell, Mr. Lieu, Mr. Cohen, Mr. Peters, Ms.
Schakowsky, Mr. Espaillat, Ms. Stansbury, Mrs. McIver, Ms. Salinas, Ms.
McCollum, Mr. Kennedy of New York, Ms. Tlaib, Mr. Krishnamoorthi, Mr.
Vargas, Ms. Norton, Mr. Soto, Ms. Brownley, Ms. Escobar, Mr. Garcia of
Illinois, Mr. McGovern, Mr. Veasey, Mr. Schneider, Ms. Titus, Ms. Dean
of Pennsylvania, Ms. Clarke of New York, Mr. Deluzio, Mr. Pocan, Mr.
Khanna, Mr. Cisneros, Mrs. Foushee, Mr. Bell, Ms. Kamlager-Dove, Ms.
Craig, Mr. Nadler, Mr. Garcia of California, Ms. Budzinski, Mrs.
McClain Delaney, Ms. Garcia of Texas, Ms. Ansari, Mrs. Cherfilus-
McCormick, Ms. Pettersen, Ms. Lofgren, Mr. Latimer, Mrs. Watson
Coleman, Ms. Omar, Ms. Brown, Mr. Takano, Mr. Morelle, Ms. Strickland,
Ms. McBride, Mrs. Beatty, Ms. Castor of Florida, Ms. Randall, Mr.
Magaziner, Mrs. Torres of California, Mr. Frost, Ms. DeGette, Ms.
Jayapal, Mr. DeSaulnier, Mr. Green of Texas, Mr. Gottheimer, Mrs.
Trahan, Ms. Moore of Wisconsin, Mr. Mullin, Mrs. Fletcher, Ms.
Morrison, Ms. Davids of Kansas, Mr. Carbajal, Ms. Balint, Mr. Tonko,
Mr. Menendez, Ms. Stevens, Ms. Ross, Mr. Moulton, Mr. Thompson of
California, Ms. Scanlon, Ms. Dexter, Mr. Horsford, Ms. DeLauro, Ms.
Ocasio-Cortez, Mr. Cleaver, Mrs. McBath, Mr. Bera, Mr. Walkinshaw, Mr.
Davis of Illinois, Ms. Jacobs, Ms. Matsui, Mr. Olszewski, and Ms. Leger
Fernandez) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was
referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the
Committee on Energy and Commerce, 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
_______________________________________________________________________
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Commending State and local governments for championing reproductive
rights as human rights.
Whereas, on June 24, 2022, the United States Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson
Women's Health Organization, (597 U.S. 215 (2022)) overturned Roe v.
Wade, (410 U.S. 113 (1973)) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, (505 U.S.
833 (1992)), and eliminated the Federal constitutional right to abortion
in the United States;
Whereas, subsequently, more than a dozen States have passed legal barriers that
fully ban abortion, and many others have passed legal barriers that
severely restrict abortion, making abortion inaccessible in half of all
States in the United States;
Whereas the retrogression on abortion rights in the United States is
inconsistent with the United States obligations under international
human rights law;
Whereas treaties ratified by the United States should be upheld at the Federal,
State, and local levels as they are considered the ``supreme Law of the
Land'' under clause 2 of article VI of the United States Constitution;
Whereas the United States has ratified, and is bound by, the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, done on June 1, 1992, the
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination, done on September 29, 1994, and the Convention against
Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment,
done on September 19, 1994;
Whereas the United States has previously joined the international community in
identifying reproductive rights as human rights, including during the
1995 Beijing World Conference on Women;
Whereas escalating restrictions on abortion access in the United States conflict
with public health guidance;
Whereas the abortion care guideline, published by the World Health Organization
in 2022, recommends the full decriminalization of abortion, the removal
of grounds-based restrictions on abortion, and the removal of
gestational age limits on the provision of abortion care;
Whereas access to the full range of sexual and reproductive health care,
including abortion, is essential to the health and well-being of all
people;
Whereas no one should be criminalized for any pregnancy, circumstances
surrounding their pregnancy, or pregnancy outcome;
Whereas punishing pregnant people for their pregnancy outcomes and the
circumstances of their pregnancies or for accessing essential
reproductive and sexual health care violates their human rights;
Whereas the threat of criminalization or prosecution can intimidate people from
seeking or providing care;
Whereas reproductive and sexual health care providers administer high-quality,
essential health care, and play a critical role in ensuring people can
make decisions about their bodies and lives with dignity;
Whereas no one should be criminalized for providing essential health care;
Whereas pregnant people who have been denied abortion care suffer many adverse
consequences, including putting their health, fertility, and lives at
risk, being forced to carry pregnancies against their will and even
nonviable pregnancies to term, and being criminalized for miscarriage,
the circumstances of their pregnancies, abortions, and other pregnancy
outcomes;
Whereas pregnant people in Texas and other Southern States have been forced to
undergo invasive and dangerous surgeries, such as cesarean sections,
instead of receiving routine abortion care when faced with obstetric
emergencies, putting their health and lives at risk;
Whereas such legally compelled interventions are obstetric violence, a form of
gender-based violence which has long affected communities of color and
especially Black communities, as early American gynecology treated Black
women as expendable clinical material for its institutional needs, and
this medical violence was animated by biological racism and the legal
and economic exigencies of the antebellum era;
Whereas all levels of government are obligated to prevent rather than empower
discrimination and violence at the hands of the state;
Whereas confusion and fear among health care providers on what is allowable
under emergency medical exceptions has led to delays and denials of
necessary lifesaving care, increasing health risks and preventable
maternal deaths;
Whereas research has shown an 8-percent increase in pregnancy-associated
mortality, with the highest impact being felt amongst Black women, who
already face a higher rate of baseline mortality;
Whereas pregnant people in States that ban abortion, like Texas and Louisiana,
are twice as likely to die during pregnancy or childbirth;
Whereas, in Texas, after the State's ban went into effect, hospitals experienced
a 50-percent increase in sepsis rates during second-trimester
hospitalizations;
Whereas, in 2024, over 155,000 patients were forced to travel out of State to
seek abortion care, and between 2020 and the first half of 2023, the
number of people traveling out of State for care jumped from 1 in 10 to
1 in 5;
Whereas, because large swaths of the country have restrictive policies,
thousands of people have had to travel hundreds of miles to access care;
Whereas millions more cannot and will not be able to travel to access abortion
care because of financial and travel-related barriers, their immigration
status and risk of deportation, or because they are incarcerated or on
probation or parole;
Whereas young persons under 18 face additional and often insurmountable barriers
to accessing abortion, such as abortion bans, laws that force them to
notify or seek consent of a guardian even when that might pose a threat
to their safety, and laws that criminalize adults who help them leave
these State for an abortion;
Whereas these barriers force countless young persons under 18 into unwanted
pregnancies or unsafe situations, particularly those from abusive or
unsupportive families, harms that are compounded for LGBTQIA+ youth,
young people of color, and those without financial or travel resources;
Whereas Indigenous people, Black people, people of color, people with low
incomes, people living in rural areas, people with disabilities,
immigrants, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and other marginalized individuals are
disproportionately likely to be surveilled, arrested, charged,
prosecuted, convicted, and heavily punished within the United States
criminal justice system and, due to systemic discrimination, to
experience additional scrutiny from the United States legal system;
Whereas, from 2006 to 2022, almost 1,400 people were arrested in the United
States in relation to the circumstances or outcomes of their pregnancy,
including pregnancy loss, and prosecutions overwhelmingly targeted
people with low incomes, and this trend has only increased since the
Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision;
Whereas, in the first 2 years since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health
Organization decision, State prosecutors have initiated at least 412
cases charging pregnant people with crimes related to pregnancy,
pregnancy loss, or birth, and more than three-quarters of the people
charged were low-income individuals, and in 264 of these cases,
information supporting criminal prosecution was obtained or disclosed in
a medical setting;
Whereas many pregnant people experiencing miscarriage have been forced to wait
until they are septic before receiving treatment or denied treatment
altogether, even when the pregnancy is no longer viable;
Whereas life-threatening conditions, such as preterm premature rupture of
membranes (PPROM), should permit lawful emergency care under the
Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) and under lawful
exceptions within State abortion bans, but in practice these exceptions
are not always implemented, thereby threatening people's health and
lives;
Whereas a climate of fear has also deterred providers from giving clear
information about pregnancy options, and even from providing prenatal
care early in pregnancy when the risk of miscarriage can be high,
further undermining patients' rights to informed consent and safe,
necessary medical care;
Whereas the chilling effect of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization
decision has resulted in at least 34 clinics closing in States where
abortion remains legal since 2024;
Whereas such restrictive policies have forced high-risk pregnancy specialists to
flee antiabortion States, including the State of Idaho which saw a
decrease in high-risk pregnancy specialists of over 40 percent in the
wake of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision;
Whereas, alongside abortion restrictions, attacks on LGBTQIA+ health care
access, including gender-affirming care, have increased, impacting
marginalized groups;
Whereas, during this Congress, the Federal Government passed a spending bill
which cut $1 trillion from critical health programs, effectively
upending the entire system while making it even harder for an estimated
10 million people who will lose their health insurance coverage, while
also defunding Planned Parenthood by removing access to essential
Medicaid funds;
Whereas the United States has been reviewed by two United Nations treaty-
monitoring bodies since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization
decision, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and
the Human Rights Committee;
Whereas, on August 11 and 12, 2022, the United Nations Committee on the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination reviewed the United States
implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Racial Discrimination and, on August 30, 2022, issued
recommendations to the United States Government to address the profound
disparate impact of the Supreme Court's ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson
Women's Health Organization on women of racial and ethnic minorities,
Indigenous women, and those with low incomes;
Whereas, on October 17 and 18, 2023, the United Nations Human Rights Committee
reviewed the United States implementation of the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights and, on November 3, 2023, issued
concluding observations to the United States Government expressing deep
concern over the criminalization of abortion seekers, those who help
them, and abortion providers; restrictions on interstate travel that
inhibit access to care; bans on medication abortion; the use of digital
data surrounding abortion for prosecution purposes; and the profound
impact on the human rights of women and girls seeking an abortion, and
in particular, the disproportionate impact on women and girls with low
incomes and from vulnerable groups, those living in rural areas, and
those belonging to racial and ethnic minorities;
Whereas State and local governments play an important role in ensuring that the
United States complies with its treaty obligations;
Whereas the United Nations Human Rights Committee recommended on November 3,
2023, that State and local lawmakers uphold human rights in their
lawmaking and to take specific action to ensure that no one is
criminalized for a pregnancy outcome, nor anyone who provides abortion
care or helps someone obtain an abortion, and that all people can access
abortion care when they need it;
Whereas, despite the United States Government supporting 13 recommendations
relating to sexual and reproductive health in its prior Universal Period
Review cycle in 2021, the United States has facilitated an increasingly
hostile legal, policy, and practice landscape around abortion and
reproductive health care, to a deeply harmful effect;
Whereas, on August 27, 2025, in an attempt to evade accountability for grave,
ongoing human rights violations in the country, the United States
Department of State sent a letter to the Office of the High Commissioner
on Human Rights stating that the Trump administration will not
participate in its upcoming Universal Periodic Review (UPR), a United
Nations process through which countries review each other's human rights
records;
Whereas, on November 7, 2025, following receipt of such letter, the United
Nations Human Rights Council adopted a decision in which it called on
the United States to resume its cooperation with the UPR and postponed
the UPR to November 2026, while leaving open the possibility for the UPR
to be scheduled sooner;
Whereas every United Nations member country participates in the UPR process,
and, to date, only two other countries, Israel and Nicaragua, have ever
attempted to evade review, and no country has ever fully done so;
Whereas this proposition to boycott the United States UPR presents a dangerous
precedent at the United Nations and for global accountability mechanisms
more broadly;
Whereas rather than avoiding accountability for the erosion and attacks on human
rights, all levels of government should be working to respect, protect,
and ensure human rights;
Whereas, on October 21, 2025, the Town Council of Carrboro, North Carolina,
unanimously passed a resolution declaring December 10 as ``Human Rights
Day'' and unanimously resolved to advocate for Women's Health and
Comprehensive Reproductive Rights as a human right, affirmed that all
people deserve access to high-quality health care without fear of
government interference or punishment, affirmed that North Carolina has
an obligation to implement and protect human rights, and aligns itself
with its human rights obligations under the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination, and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, in accordance with clause
2 of article VI of the United States Constitution;
Whereas, on November 4, 2025, the city of Mount Rainier, Maryland, issued a
mayoral proclamation declaring December 10 as ``Human Rights Day'' and
aligning the city government with its human rights obligations under the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the city will pass a
resolution declaring the same in December 2025;
Whereas, on November 13, 2025, the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, enacted a
resolution declaring December 10 as ``Human Rights Day'' and elevating
the Nation's human rights obligations under the treaties it has
ratified, in accordance with clause 2 of article VI of the United States
Constitution, as well as recognizing that these human rights obligations
require access to the full spectrum of reproductive health care
services, including abortion care, and uplifting the numerous human
rights violations across the Nation in States that deny this essential
care, including the criminalization of pregnancy outcomes, and the
exacerbation of severe maternal morbidity and the racial disparities
present therein;
Whereas, on December 3, 2025, Fulton County, Georgia, considered the adoption of
a resolution that affirms that reproductive rights are human rights,
condemns the criminalization of abortion and related services, urges the
Georgia General Assembly to repeal the State's six-week abortion ban,
and recognizes that treaties ratified by the United States should be
upheld at the Federal, State, and local level as they are considered the
``supreme Law of the Land'' under clause 2 of article VI of the United
States Constitution;
Whereas, on December 3, 2025, Fulton County, Georgia, presented a proclamation
declaring December 10, 2025, as ``Human Rights Day'' and affirming that
human rights are universal and that every level of government must
ensure that these rights are upheld in law, policy, and practice;
Whereas, on December 4, 2025, the city of Austin, Texas issued a mayoral
proclamation declaring December 10 as ``Human Rights Day'' and aligning
itself with its human rights obligations under the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Racial Discrimination, and the Convention against Torture and Other
Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, in accordance with
clause 2 of article VI of the United States Constitution, as well as
elevating the egregious human rights violations occurring in Texas each
day, including the mass and illegal detention and deportation scheme
that suspends the human rights of migrants, the systemic injustices of
the criminal legal system, the expansion of the ``terrorism'' framework
and vast surveillance infrastructure used to repress expression, the
regression on reproductive rights and bodily autonomy, and the
criminalization of homelessness and poverty;
Whereas, on December 4, 2025, the city of Baltimore passed a resolution
recognizing December 10 as ``Human Rights Day'', reaffirming the City
Council's commitment to aligning its policy with the human rights
obligations of international law and calling on all city agencies,
organizations, and residents to reaffirm their commitment to the
fundamental rights and intrinsic worth of all human beings, and
reaffirming its commitment to protecting its citizens' reproductive
rights and committing to supporting measures to ensure access to
abortion, family planning, labor and delivery care, miscarriage
management, pre- and post-natal care, and all other reproductive health
services regardless of background;
Whereas, on September 11 and 12, 2024, the city councils of Chapel Hill and
Carrboro, North Carolina, introduced and passed resolutions declaring
reproductive rights and abortion as human rights, and explicitly
condemning the chill felt in North Carolina from neighboring States that
ban abortion and the criminalization of anyone for a pregnancy outcome
or for any circumstance surrounding their pregnancy;
Whereas, on June 28, 2022, the city of Alexandria, Virginia, enacted a
resolution to expand access to abortion in the wake of the Dobbs v.
Jackson Women's Health Organization decision, and the city council held
a status update meeting to address areas for improvement on June 25,
2024, just after the 2-year anniversary of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's
Health Organization ruling;
Whereas Louisiana House bills 56, 63, 164, and 293 were introduced in February
2024 and sought to increase access to reproductive health care, and
committee testimony regarding the bills illustrated the human rights
concerns and obligations that necessitated the passage of these bills;
Whereas Mount Rainier, Maryland, issued a mayoral proclamation declaring June
24, 2024, as ``Reproductive Rights are Human Rights Day'', a first-of-
its-kind effort on a local level to protect reproductive freedom as a
human right, and passed a resolution declaring the same on October 1,
2024;
Whereas Montgomery County, Maryland, passed a resolution to address the Dobbs v.
Jackson Women's Health Organization decision in 2022 and passed a
resolution with unanimous support on September 10, 2024, to increase
access to abortion in the country and to explicitly condemn the
criminalization of anyone for a pregnancy outcome or the criminalization
of anyone for a circumstance surrounding their pregnancy;
Whereas the city of Baltimore, Maryland, passed a resolution on September 30,
2024, affirming Baltimore's commitment to reproductive rights and
support for the Maryland constitutional amendment to ensure access to
abortion, family planning, labor and delivery care, miscarriage
management, prenatal and postnatal care, and all other reproductive
health services regardless of background;
Whereas Governor Wes Moore signed a proclamation enshrining in law the
fundamental right to reproductive freedom into the Maryland State
constitution on January 17, 2025;
Whereas the City Council of Austin, Texas, has invested over $400,000 in support
of abortion access to help low-income people overcome the myriad
barriers they face seeking abortion care, and passed a resolution on
August 29, 2024, declaring abortion as a human right, acknowledging the
duties of the Texas government at the local and State levels to uphold
its human rights obligations under the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights, and explicitly condemning the criminalization of
anyone for a pregnancy outcome or the criminalization of anyone for a
circumstance surrounding their pregnancy;
Whereas the Carrboro, North Carolina; Baltimore, Maryland; Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania; and Fulton County, Georgia resolutions referred to in this
preamble, as well as the Austin, Texas, and Mount Rainer, Maryland,
proclamations declaring December 10 as ``Human Rights Day'' reflect
State and local efforts to address recommendations made by the United
Nations Human Rights Committee on maternal mortality, voluntary
termination of pregnancy, and sexual and reproductive rights, and to
promote and protect human rights; and
Whereas Louisiana House bills 56, 63, 164, and 293, the city of Mount Rainier,
Maryland, proclamation and resolution making June 24, 2024,
``Reproductive Rights are Human Rights Day'', and resolutions for
Austin, Texas, Montgomery County, Maryland, Alexandria, Virginia,
Baltimore, Maryland, and Chapel Hill and Carrboro, North Carolina,
reflect State and local efforts to address recommendations made by the
United Nations Human Rights Committee on maternal mortality, voluntary
termination of pregnancy, and sexual and reproductive rights, and to
promote and protect human rights: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring),
That Congress--
(1) recognizes the important role that State and local
governments should play to ensure that the United States
complies with its treaty obligations;
(2) condemns the criminalization of abortion and the
criminalization of any circumstances or outcomes of a person's
pregnancy in the United States;
(3) affirms that all people deserve access to high-quality
health care without fear of punishment;
(4) affirms that reproductive rights are human rights;
(5) urges the governments of States that impose
restrictions harmful to pregnant people to repeal those
restrictions; and
(6) urges the governments of States--
(A) to repeal State laws that criminalize abortion;
(B) to prohibit the prosecution of people for
having abortions or for any other circumstances or
outcomes of their pregnancies; and
(C) to protect and guarantee human rights.
<all>
Submitted in House
Submitted in House
Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, 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.
Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, 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.
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