While the U.S. has made great strides toward women’s equality, I believe there is still more to be done. Women make up half of the population, yet they are not getting an equal share and full opportunity to participate in the economy. I will continue to work to expand women’s rights, especially when it comes to guaranteeing a woman’s ability to make her own health care decisions, ensuring women get equal pay for equal work and pushing for stronger economic opportunity.  

Accomplishments

Women’s Health and Wellbeing

• Supported funding for Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) funding and legislation to reauthorize VAWA.

• Championed provisions to end the ban on allowing veterans with reproductive issues due to service related injuries to have access to IVF and adoption.

• Voted repeatedly to protect women’s health care by standing with Planned Parenthood and the women who rely on the organization for their health care. Decisions about health care should remain between a woman and her doctor.

• Supported increased funding to expand women’s healthcare, including maternal health and ovarian cancer research.

• Supported the Global Health, Empowerment, and Rights (HER) Act, to permanently repeal the harmful global gag rule which bans federal funds for foreign non-governmental organizations that provide abortion services or provide information about abortion as part of comprehensive family planning services.

• Supported the Protect Access to Birth Control Act, to repeal the final rules issued by the administration that threaten to curtail access to affordable birth control for thousands of women.

Equal Pay for Equal Work

• Cosponsored the Raise the Wage Act, to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour and tie future increases to the median hourly wage. Nearly six in ten minimum wage workers are women. Women, who make up 49 percent of the workforce, account for 56 percent of low-wage earners.

• Cosponsored the Paycheck Fairness Act, to ensure women are paid based on their skills and experience, not their gender.

• Cosponsored the Schedules That Work Act, which allows low-wage workers to request for flexibility of their schedules without retaliation.

• Cosponsored the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act to help end discrimination against pregnant women and mothers in the workplace