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Extent: 2 linear feet Boxes: 49 - 50
Contents: Correspondence, notes, memoranda, legislation, publications, reports, and other
printed materials.
Arrangement: Arranged alphabetically by subject.
Description:
This subseries highlights issues relating to women's health, reproductive health and rights,
breast cancer treatment, economic equity, and employment. The Congressional Caucus for
Women's Issues, of which Carper was a member, is well-represented in this subseries via their
Updates and weekly memoranda highlighting pending issues and legislation.
A large portion of this subseries is devoted to reproductive health and rights, and includes
papers and legislation on parental consent, minors and access to abortion services, and fetal tissue
research. This series is particularly rich in background files and research related to effects of
parental consent on minors seeking abortions, and court cases such as Planned Parenthood of
Southeast Pennsylvania v. Casey, Hodge v. Minnesota, and Webster v. Reproductive Health
Services. This was an active time for court decisions pertaining to provision of information on all
choices available to pregnant women, and modifications of the 1973 landmark ruling by the
Supreme Court, Roe v. Wade. Controversy related to these issues is well-documented by the files
in this subseries.
Legislation known as Title X, a part of the Public Health Service Act of 1985, comprises a
large part of the subseries. Title X dealt with family planning funding, research, training of family
planning staff, and information and education relation to sexuality. Title X's purpose was to
provide low-income women and teenagers access to voluntary family planning services, and it was
viewed as a way to reduce the need for abortion. Carper felt that a decision on abortion was a
very personal one that should be decided between a woman and her physician. He supported a
woman's right to seek an abortion in the months before fetal viability but not after, unless the
health of the mother was in jeopardy. Carper also advocated parental notification, but not
necessarily consent, citing the potential for harmful delays in the process.
Another important piece of legislation in this series dealt with H.R. 2, the Family and
Medical Leave Act of 1991. This bill, passed by the House, provided for twelve weeks of unpaid
leave per year for employees to care for new or sick children, or spouses, or for personal medical
care. The bill, which President George Bush had promised to veto, was amended and passed as
the Gordon-Hyde substitute.
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Series I.C.22. -- Scope and Content Note
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