Issue Position: Women's Rights

Issue Position

I am firmly committed to protecting a women's personal right to make her own choices about her health and well-being. Because of my deep respect for family and individual choice, it is my belief that the right to choose must remain a personal health decision that a woman makes in consultation with her doctor and loved ones, without government intrusion. We must vigilantly protect this right by ensuring all women have access to the comprehensive healthcare services they need.

Additionally, I will work with my colleagues on both sides of this debate to promote policies that reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country through improved access to contraception and effective safe sex education. It is also imperative that families be provided with the support they need when a woman does chose to carry her pregnancy to term.

We can enhance access to family planning and promote effective and appropriate sex education to teach a full complement of topics, including abstinence, birth control and sexually transmitted diseases to encourage young adults to make safe, responsible decisions and cut down on the overall number of unwanted pregnancies.

Equal Pay

While the wage gap between women and men has narrowed since passage of the Equal Pay Act in 1963, gender-based wage discrimination still remains a serious problem for too many woman in today's workforce. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, enacted in 2009, took a step in the right direction by resetting with each new paycheck the 180-day statute of limitation for filing equal-pay lawsuits against employers. Still, I believe that more action remains to be taken to combat gender-based pay inequality in this country.

I am proud to be an original cosponsor of the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would build on the progress made by the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act by providing additional tools for victims of gender discrimination to seek and obtain equal pay. This bill would allow women to sue for compensatory and punitive damages, require employees to prove that unequal pay is job-related and call on the Department of Labor to educate and train employers to reduce instances of pay disparity.

Violence Against Women Act (VAWA)

One of my very first actions as a member of Congress was to cosponsor the VAWA Reauthorization Act of 2013. On February 28, I proudly voted in favor of this bill, which passed by a bipartisan vote of 286 to 138. In addition to reauthorizing federal programs that seek to reduce the instances of domestic violence and provide assistance for victims of abuse and assault, this bill increases the number of temporary visas for immigrant victims of domestic abuse and expands VAWA protections to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender victims of abuse. Everyone deserves to be protected from domestic violence, and I am pleased that we were able to come together to expand access to these important programs. The President signed the VAWA Reauthorization Act into law on March 7, 2013.

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