Issue Position: Choice

Issue Position

Defend the Right to Choose

I'm 100% pro-choice. I'll fight to protect and expand the right to choose. This year, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide its most significant abortion case in more than 20 years, the backlash from the Planned Parenthood videos will persist, state legislatures will continue what has become devastating business as usual, including enacting new laws to shut clinics and stigmatize abortions. And the presidential election will keep this issue prominent. These moments present challenges as well as real opportunities to defend a woman's right to choose.

The situation on choice is somewhat different for women in Maryland. In 1991, Maryland passed a state constitutional amendment with 60% support from the voters to guarantee that women in Maryland will maintain their right to have an abortion even if Roe v. Wade is overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. But we have a larger responsibility to preserve and expand this right for women throughout the country. The situation is an emergency in many states and many rural areas where state restrictions have closed all or almost all clinics. Even where clinics still exist, women are often forced to drive hundreds of miles to receive the treatment they choose. In states with waiting periods, they are required to drive to the clinic two different times. That's not right, and I will work every day to guarantee that women throughout this country have the right to choose and are able to exercise it. No politician or judge should make these decisions for my wife and daughters, for yours, or for any woman in the country.

It's personal to me. Politicians and judges have no business making personal health care decisions for my three daughters or any woman in this District or this country. And I believe that women of all ages deserve access to information about their reproductive choices. Nearly one third of women get pregnant before the age of 20. Let's empower women to make the best health decisions possible by providing access to smart sex education classes.

I will oppose any legislation that defunds Planned Parenthood. We need to stand up to Republicans who are attacking Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers. Efforts to shut down clinics, as we are seeing in Texas and elsewhere, and intrusive requirements like mandatory sonograms or mandatory wait periods before obtaining abortion services are direct attacks on a woman's right to choose if and when she wants to have a child. Planned Parenthood should continue to receive federal and state funding. It provides vital services to women all across the nation, services many women can't get anywhere else.

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