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. 1869, the Paycheck Fairness Act, to improve pay equity protections for women. (I cosponsored this as H.R. 1619 in the 114th Congress and as H.R. 377 in the 113th Congress.)

I'm a cosponsor of H.R. 2417, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, a bipartisan bill 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. 2654 in the 114th Congress and as H.R. 1975 in the 113th Congress.)

I’m an original cosponsor of H.R. 771, the Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance (EACH Woman) Act of 2017, which would repeal the Hyde Amendment and allow federal funding for abortion services. (I cosponsored this as H.R. 2972 in the 114th Congress.)

I'm a cosponsor of H.R. 1322, the Women's Health Protection Act of 2017, which 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. (I cosponsored this as H.R. 448 in the 114th Congress.

I'm an original cosponsor of H.R. 2180, the Access to Contraception for Women Servicemembers and Dependents Act of 2017, which would bring health care provided by the military in line with current law for civilian populations by ensuring that all women who receive health care through the United States military have access to all forms of FDA-approved contraception with no health insurance co-pay.

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, to 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 was the legislative response to the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores.

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.