Women

Every woman deserves access to reproductive health services and the ability to make her own decisions about her health. I am fighting for women’s rights and will stand up against legislation that would prevent a woman from making her own healthcare decisions. 

We must pass commonsense legislation to protect women’s rights and ensure that women have equal access to healthcare, educational, and economic opportunities.

What I am Doing for You

I’m an original cosponsor of H.R. 1619, the Paycheck Fairness Act, to improve women’s ability to achieve pay equity. (I cosponsored this as H.R. 377 in the 113th Congress.)

I cosponsored H.R. 2654, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which would ensure pregnant workers are not forced out of their jobs or denied reasonable accommodations that would allow them to keep working. (I cosponsored this as H.R. 1975 in the 113th Congress.)

I’m an original cosponsor of H.R. 2972, the Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance (EACH Woman) Act of 2015. This bill would repeal the Hyde Amendment to allow federal funding for abortion services. 

I cosponsored H.R. 448, the Women's Health Protection Act of 2015. This bill would invalidate any state laws that single out abortion providers for requirements and restrictions that are medically unnecessary, do not promote women's health or safety, and limit access to abortion services.

In the 113th Congress:

I cosponsored and voted for H.R. 11, the bipartisan legislation to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). This bill continued and improved the VAWA programs that protect women from domestic violence by providing new protections and services for immigrants, Native Americans, and LGBT persons.

I cosponsored H.R. 5051, the Protect Women’s Health From Corporate Interference Act of 2014, which would prevent corporate employers from using religious beliefs to deny employees coverage of contraception or any other vital health service required by federal law and keep in place existing exemption for religious employers (e.g., houses of worship) and accommodation of religious non-profits. This bill is the legislative response to the Supreme Court decision in Hobby Lobby.

I cosponsored H.R. 728, the Access to Birth Control (ABC) Act.  This bill would prevent pharmacists from refusing to fill a prescription for birth control and require pharmacies to help a woman obtain medication by her preferred method if the requested product is not in stock. 

I led a letter sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, urging it to reduce the hundreds of thousands of cases including backlog DNA evidence, which includes untested rape kits, by better utilizing the capacity of private laboratories.