00                    HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 26                                                                   
01 Designating January 21 - 25, 2013, as Reproductive Rights Awareness Week.                                               
02 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                               
03       WHEREAS women make up more than half of the population of the United States;                                    
04 and                                                                                                                     
05       WHEREAS women who plan their pregnancies are more likely to seek prenatal care,                                 
06 improving their own health and the health of their children; and                                                        
07       WHEREAS the United States ranks 30th in the world in the rate of maternal mortality                             
08 and has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality among all developed nations; and                                 
09       WHEREAS family planning services improve health care outcomes and wellness for                                  
10 women and families; and                                                                                                 
11       WHEREAS access to family planning is directly linked to declines in maternal and                                
12 infant mortality rates, and women who do not receive prenatal care are three to four times                              
13 more likely to die after a live birth than women who have received even minimal prenatal                                
14 care; and                                                                                                               
15       WHEREAS contraception enables a woman to prevent unintended pregnancy and to                                    
16 plan for pregnancy when she wants to have a child; and                                                                  
01       WHEREAS publicly funded contraceptive services and supplies prevent nearly                                      
02 2,000,000 unintended pregnancies each year in the United States; and                                                    
03       WHEREAS nearly half of all unintended pregnancies end in abortion, and abortion                                 
04 rates in the United States increase during times when contraception is less accessible to low-                          
05 income women; and                                                                                                       
06       WHEREAS the United States has one of the highest rates of unintended pregnancy                                  
07 among the world's developed nations, half of all the pregnancies in the United States are                               
08 unintended, and half of unintended pregnancies occur in women who are not using                                         
09 contraceptives; and                                                                                                     
10       WHEREAS, in addition to the primary purpose of allowing women to plan and                                       
11 prepare for pregnancy, other health benefits of contraception include reduced risk of                                   
12 endometrial and ovarian cancers, ectopic pregnancy, iron deficiency anemia related to heavy                             
13 menstruation, osteoporosis, ovarian cysts, and pelvic inflammatory disease; and                                         
14       WHEREAS racial and ethnic health disparities, including disparities in rates of                                 
15 contraception usage, unintended pregnancies, maternal mortality, and sexually transmitted                               
16 infections, are particularly pronounced in reproductive health, and those disparities reveal                            
17 significant barriers to access to sexual health care, including contraception, and to medical                           
18 care, and medically accurate sexuality education;                                                                       
19       BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature designates January 21 - 25,                                    
20 2013, as Reproductive Rights Awareness Week and encourages public awareness of,                                         
21 conversation on, and support for reproductive rights and justice.