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On the Issues: Women's Rights 

The Right to Choose

No other freedom has been under more consistent attack than women's reproductive rights. This constitutional right was recognized in the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 landmark ruling in Roe v. Wade.  Women must be guaranteed their Constitutional rights, free from governmental intrusion. The decision to have an abortion is a private one, made by women in consultation with their doctor, clergy or family members and without the interference from Congress or the courts. I will continue to speak out against legislation that weakens the freedoms of women, and I will continue to urge my colleagues in the Senate to carefully scrutinize judicial nominees to root out those who would work to undermine the Roe vs. Wade decision. I am proud to have a 100 percent voting record with the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL), and throughout the 111th Congress, I will continue to support legislation that protects women's reproductive rights.

Recently, however, the U.S. Supreme Court has started chipping away at a woman’s right to choose as defined under Roe.  During his Administration, President Bush appointed two new Justices to the U.S. Supreme Court – Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito.  With the appointment of these two Justices and the retirement of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the Supreme Court has assumed a more conservative ideology which is opposed to the basic principles of Roe. 

In fact, in 2007 the Supreme Court issued a 5-4 decision in the joint cases of Gonzales v. Carhart and Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood, which upheld President Bush’s legislation banning partial birth abortions.  This decision reversed clearly established Supreme Court precedent that was adopted six years earlier which found a similar Federal ban to be unconstitutional.  Such decisions by the Supreme Court demonstrate the importance of confirming Supreme Court Justices that support a woman’s right to choose.  If the Senate is not vigilant and thorough in its duty to scrutinize Supreme Court nominees, then I fear Roe will no longer be the law of the land.  I will continue to urge my colleagues in the Senate to carefully scrutinize judicial nominees to root out those who would work to undermine the Roe decision. 

Additionally, it is essential that Congress act to protect a woman’s right to choose.  I strongly support legislation providing for: full funding of family planning services to provide women with essential reproductive and healthcare services; insurance coverage for contraceptives so that women do not have to pay out of pocket for birth control; making RU-486 available, which provides women with a safe alternative to surgical abortion; and overturning the ban on abortion services for women who serve overseas in the military.  I will continue to speak out against legislation that weakens a woman’s right to choose, and I am proud to have a 100 percent voting record with the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL).

Fair Pay

As the father of two daughters, I am committed to protecting women's rights in the workplace. With President Barack Obama now in office and an expanded Democratic majority in Congress, a new page was turned when H.R. 11 – Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act – was passed and became law. I proudly sponsored this legislation, which reverses the unfortunate ruling by the Supreme Court and helps guarantee the right of women to address payment discrimination. Lilly Ledbetter, for whom the legislation is named, was denied recourse against Goodyear Tires Co., which drastically underpaid her for decades despite performance evaluations that were the same, if not better, than her male colleagues in similar positions.  The legislation will reset the law to prior to the 2007 court ruling in Ledbetter vs. Goodyear.  This clarifies that every paycheck or other compensation received that is considered discriminatory constitutes a violation of the Civil Rights Act.  As long as a claim is made within 180 days of the discriminatory payment a claim can be filed based on each payment.

I also cosponsored H.R. 12 – Paycheck Fairness Act – to strengthen the Equal Pay Act to more accurately target and support fixing gender based payment discrepancy. This bill makes certain that if an employer pays a man more than a woman for the same job, the employer must be able to quantifiably show that the difference is related to ability to complete that job successfully.  The bill also puts sex-based payment discrimination on a similar level as racial payment discrimination, thus strengthening it.