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Since helping to elect
the first two women U.S. Senators in 1992 and working as Senator
Feinstein’s intern on Capitol Hill,
I have a long history of involvement in
supporting women’s right to choose. I worked hard to help get
the first two women U.S. Senators elected in California and then spent
a year as Senator Feinstein’s intern on Capitol Hill. I fought
for female victims of domestic violence when I put together an ad
campaign and a core group of plaintiffs to sue the Romney
Administration over its unlawful and overtly discriminatory licensing
and enforcement policies, which immobilized minority women.
I believe women must be given every
opportunity to make their own responsible decisions. I am appalled at
the recent Supreme Court decision, where a group of men took it upon
themselves to change the rules and the only female justice dissented.
I will work hard to ensure that choice remains safe in Massachusetts
by seeking to expand the buffer zone around clinics. I support the
Act to Provide Health Education in Schools because I believe that
comprehensive education is the key to making responsible choices.
I support expanding the availability of
the Plan B contraceptive, the safest method for preventing unintended
pregnancy when ordinary contraceptives fail. Amid strong political
pressure, the FDA has approved non-prescription availability of this
drug for women over 18, although leading medical organizations,
including the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical
Association and the American College of Obstetricians and
Gynecologists agree that there is no medical reason for such a
restriction.
The policy subjects girls to bigger hurdles and solidifies the message
that motherhood is their punishment for sex.
But even women over 18 face a serious
intrusion into their privacy, because they are required to personally
request the drug and pass a consultation with a pharmacist, rather
than simply buy it off the shelf, as men buy contraceptives. I will
submit a bill to require that Plan B be taken out from behind the
pharmacist's counter and put right on the shelf with condoms and
aspirin -- where it belongs. That bill will also include funding for
a public education campaign to let women know of this step toward
having the opportunity to make their own responsible decisions. |
