Women's Rights
Rep. Chu honoring local Women of Distinction
When women succeed, we all succeed. That is why I will always fight for equal rights for women. Women who do the same work as men should earn equal pay. Taking care of a sick child or going through pregnancy should not mean having to lose out on a paycheck. And healthcare choices should be made by women, not their employers or politicians.
In Congress, I am proud to be a Member of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus (PCC)—a group of over 150 Members of the U.S. House of Representatives committed to advancing reproductive rights, freedom, and justice. I am also a proud Member of the Democratic Women’s Caucus.
Women’s Constitutional Rights
Women were deliberately left out of the U.S. Constitution. The Founders viewed us as second-class citizens, and we were denied basic rights like voting, owning property, or even holding most jobs. We have made great strides since then, but we are still not equal. Even today, women face injustices like pregnancy discrimination and disproportionate rates of sexual violence. But all too often, women are unable to fight back against this discrimination in court. That is why we must enshrine in our Constitution equal rights for women and for all people, regardless of gender. The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) would do just that. Already, the required 38 states have ratified the ERA, and the vast majority of Americans support it. As a Vice Chair of the ERA Caucus in Congress, I look forward to working with my colleagues finally pass the Equal Rights Amendment as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution, affirming once and for all women’s equality under the law.
Women’s Economic Agenda
As a proud member of the Democratic Women’s Caucus in Congress, I am pushing for a Women’s Economic Agenda, which would bring today’s policies on equal pay, childcare and paid leave into the modern age. Today, women still earn just 83 cents for every dollar men earn. And for women of color and mothers, this number is even lower. That is why I support the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would guarantee equal pay for equal work.
I also believe that it’s past time for the U.S. to join the rest of the developed world by offering guaranteed paid sick days and family leave policies to all our workers. The U.S. is one of only four countries in the world that don't offer paid leave to new mothers. The COVID-19 pandemic has proven that paid leave is essential not only for our economic security but also to protect public health, which is why I am pushing for policies on the Ways and Means Committee that would make paid sick leave and paid family and medical leave the standard in this country.
Abortion Rights
From moving key legislation forward to amplifying the voices of those in California’s 28th District and around the country demanding action, I consistently stand with my colleagues as we fight for your reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy.
Abortion care is health care, and being able to make health care decisions about your own body is a fundamental right. When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health on June 24, 2022, it effectively ripped away the ability of millions of Americans to determine the best course of action for their bodies and their families.
That is why, in every Congress since 2013, I have been the author of the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would permanently enshrine abortion rights into federal law and prevent states from being able to erode that right by passing abortion bans or imposing other medically unnecessary restrictions like ultrasound requirements, waiting periods, and more. We have seen an unprecedented number of state-based attacks on a woman's right to choose, and the Women's Health Protection Act is our way to fight back. I am so proud that the House of Representatives has twice passed my bill, most recently on July 15, 2022, by a vote of 219-210. Unfortunately, the Senate failed to pass this bill, despite the desperate attacks on our reproductive freedom. I am outraged by this and will do everything in my power to ensure that everyone, in every zip code, has the right to decide what happens to their bodies, their families, and their futures. This Congress, I was also proud to sign the Pro-Choice Caucus’ discharge petition of the Women’s Health Protection Act, which is a mechanism that would force a vote on the House Floor on this critical bill, even over GOP leadership objections. As of 2024, this discharge petition is just seven signatures away from automatically triggering floor consideration.
I am a strong supporter of multiple pieces of other abortion rights legislation, including the Ensuring Women’s Right to Reproductive Freedom Act, to protect the right to travel between states for reproductive health care; the Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Health Care Act, to protect abortion providers from retaliatory legal action.
In addition to protecting the right to abortion, true reproductive freedom means every person has access to the reproductive health care they need, regardless of income, insurance, or zip code. This requires decisive action to abolish harmful and discriminatory restrictions, such as the Hyde Amendment—a policy prohibiting all taxpayer funding for abortion care, blocking abortion care coverage for all those who rely on federal government-sponsored or subsidized health insurance. This predominantly impacts poor women and women of color. While the extreme GOP consistently pushes to codify the racist, classist Hyde Amendment, House Democrats successfully kept it out of the House- passed spending bills multiple years running in previous Congresses. Now, we are working to eliminate it once and for all, which is why I was an original cosponsor of the Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance (EACH) Act, to help ensure everybody can access the full spectrum of health care, including abortion care, regardless of their income or the source of their insurance.
Expanding access requires leaving no one behind, so I also strongly support the Reproductive Health Care Accessibility Act to expand access to the full spectrum of reproductive care, including abortion care, and eliminate barriers for individuals with disabilities.
Other critical abortion access bills my colleagues and I are working to advance in the House include the Reproductive Health Travel Fund Act, to support those traveling to access care; the Reproductive Health Care Training Act, to address gaps in abortion training; the Protecting Reproductive Freedom Act, to reaffirm the FDA’s authority over medication abortion approval and access; and the Stop Anti-Abortion Disinformation Act, to crack down on anti-abortion so-called “crisis pregnancy centers,” which seek to prevent people from accessing, or even accessing information about, abortion care by spreading harmful disinformation.
Contraception Rights and Access to Family Planning
You, and only you, have the right to decide whether, how, and when you become a parent. Every person deserves that right—and deserves to have their choice of the birth control method that works best for them, free from political interference.
As Chair of the Contraception and Family Planning Task Force of the Pro-Choice Caucus,The vast majority of Americans has used one or more method of contraception in their lifetime—and nearly 4 million people per year utilize family planning services from the federal Title X program. Every person who needs it should be able to access the family planning support and birth control method that works best for them, which is why my colleagues and I are working to expand access to family planning, including birth control. I am proud to support multiple bills that will help achieve this goal, including as a co-lead of the Expanding Access to Family Planning Act, to reauthorize and increase investment in Title X. I have also been the lead sponsor in the House of Representatives pushing for increased funding for Title X Family Planning Program, and improving the program to ensure it is not subject to so-called “gag rules” that prevent doctors from giving their patients complete and accurate medical information.
I also strongly support comprehensive sex education and the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, so that our young people have medically accurate information that help them make the best and safest decisions for themselves. These programs provide comprehensive sex education, cancer and STI screenings, and access to contraception for low-income Americans. And I’m fighting to ensure a woman’s decision to access contraception is between her and her doctor, not her and her boss. This includes additional legislation such as the Affordability is Access Act, to expand insurance coverage for over-the-counter contraceptives; the Enhancing Questions to Understand Intentions for Pregnancy (EQUIP) Act, to advance the pregnancy intention screening tools that prevent unintended pregnancy and improve the likelihood of healthy pregnancies; and the Equal Access to Contraception for Veterans Act, to limit copayments for contraception for those utilizing VA health services.
As extreme GOP attacks on contraception are already taking place across the nation, I am stand with 9 in 10 Americans and support the bipartisan Right to Contraception Act. This bill would enshrine the right to contraception into federal law and protect all people who use it from attempts to restrict access to birth control.
Women’s Safety & Privacy
As a psychologist and former rape counselor, the issue of domestic violence has long been important to me. Twenty-four people are victims of rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner every single minute. I believe that all victims of domestic violence should be protected, including immigrants, Native Americans, and members of the LGBTQ+ community. The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) is our nation’s top resource to help victims of domestic violence. That is why I worked for years to reauthorize and strengthen this law. And in March 2022, President Biden signed into law the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act to strengthen and extend VAWA’s crucial programs. This includes increasing resources for survivors, increased funding for the Rape Prevention and Education Program and Sexual Assault Services Program, training law enforcement to better respond in situations of gender-based violence, and working to reduce dating violence, particularly for young people.
Your health care choices are nobody’s business but yours and your health care provider’s— and that information should never be publicized against your will or weaponized. We need to protect personal reproductive health data, including about abortion, which is why I am proud to support the My Body, My Data Act to create a new national standard for protecting the privacy of personal reproductive and sexual health information.
Global Health & Human Rights
Reproductive rights are human rights, and I am proud of the work Congress is doing to advance those rights here in the U.S. and throughout the international community. The United States is the leading provider of global health assistance in the world, and longstanding, ideologically motivated policies have a shameful history of harming that aid’s effectiveness and our leadership on the world stage. The Global Gag Rule—also known as the Mexico City Policy—has been in effect intermittently for decades, largely under Republican administrations. The version of the rule in place during the previous administration prevented U.S. funds from going to any organizations that not only provide abortion care, but provide information on abortion care, even if U.S. funds are not spent on those services. This forced organizations receiving U.S. global health funding to choose between receiving U.S. resources and providing comprehensive reproductive health care in the best interest of their patients. On top of that, the Helms Amendment continues to bar all U.S. global health assistance from funding abortion care, even in countries where that care is legal. When in place, these policies contribute to a massive burden of unsafe abortions and maternal mortality in the countries they impact, counteracting our global health goals and the health and wellbeing of communities around the world.
While extreme GOP legislators push to codify these and other policies, to curtail human rights and slash global health and family planning funding, I stand with my Democratic colleagues in support of the Global Health, Empowerment, and Rights (HER) Act, to repeal the Global Gag rule; the Abortion is Health Care Everywhere Act, to repeal the Helms amendment; the Greater Leadership Overseas for the Benefit of Equality (GLOBE) Act, to protect global LGBTQ+ and reproductive rights; and the Support UNFPA Funding Act, to reaffirm our nation’s commitment to the UN’s family planning agency and global gender equality.