Reproductive freedom is an essential right of every person— no one should ever be prevented from being able to decide if, when, how, and with whom to start or grow a family. 

Quality sex education, affordable contraception, and access to high-quality and affordable reproductive health services – including safe and legal abortion services – are fundamental to the health and well-being of California’s women and families.  

While increasingly restrictive policies at the national level and in many states are making it ever more difficult for women to obtain the health care they want, need, and deserve, I’m proud and grateful that California has not only maintained but strengthened women’s reproductive rights, by legislating and investing to ensure that health services are as accessible and affordable as possible for the women of our state. 

Guaranteeing women access to adequate health services and unabridged reproductive rights is not only important to a woman’s health and well-being but has also been shown to have a marked impact on the living circumstances of women and their families.  Research suggests that being able to make decisions about one’s own reproductive plans– whether or when to have children – and the timing of parenthood are crucial to unlocking educational opportunities and making important career and life decisions.

Unsurprisingly, when women- and not government or men- are entrusted with control of their own bodies and provided with the information and resources necessary to make sound decisions for themselves, they enjoy better wages, higher average career incomes, more satisfying and stable relationships, and enhanced equality in the workplace and throughout society.

I’m fully committed to continuing to stand for women’s rights, particularly when it comes protecting a woman’s right to make her own reproductive choices. It also remains vitally important that women have access to contraception and are not discriminated against by employers or insurance companies when it comes to health care coverage. I will always support policies that safeguard women’s health and ensure access to reproductive and family planning services.

I’m proud to have the endorsements and support of the Community Action Fund of Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America. Each of these organizations has aggressively and courageously defended women’s rights while ensuring access to essential care and services, and I’m equally proud to support them- and the women they serve and protect- in return.