Issue Position: Women's Rights

Issue Position

Senator Jeanne Shaheen: A Leading Advocate for Women

Jeanne Shaheen is the only woman in our nation's history to serve as Governor and Senator. Jeanne has a long and distinguished record of fighting to ensure equal treatment and equal pay for women. She supports expanding access to affordable
childcare for working families and cosponsored a bill to allow workers to earn paid sick leave to care for their families. Jeanne knows that every family deserves a fair shot, which is why she supports tax credits to help families save for college tuition. Jeanne
is a leader on women's health issues and has worked to ensure that nothing stands in the way of decisions that should be made between a woman and her doctor.

Advocating For Working Women and Families

* Jeanne co-sponsored the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which was the first bill signed into law by President Obama and marked a historic step toward workplace equality for women and signed pay equity legislation into law as Governor.

* Jeanne is an original co-sponsor of and advocate for the Paycheck Fairness Act to ensure that women receive equal pay for equal work. Unequal pay for women costs the typical family $464,000 over a 40 year career.

* Jeanne supports expanding access to affordable childcare for working families and cosponsored legislation to expand child care tax credits. It can cost a New Hampshire family more than $11,000 per year for infant and toddler care.

* Jeanne cosponsored a bill to allow workers to earn paid sick leave to care for their families. Forty percent of private-sector workers have no access to paid sick days.

* Jeanne introduced the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act to protect pregnant women from workplace discrimination.

Expanding Access To Affordable Education

* Jeanne is a strong supporter of Head Start, Early Hard Start, and the Child Care Block Grant, and she is a cosponsor of legislation to expand and improve early childhood education.

* Jeanne fought to keep student loan interest rates low, supports tax credits to help New Hampshire and launched New Hampshire's first tax-free college tuition savings plan as Governor.

* As governor, Jeanne made public kindergarten a reality for tens of thousands of children in New Hampshire.

Protecting Women's Access To Healthcare

* Jeanne successfully led the effort to pass the Shaheen Amendment that extended the same abortion coverage for servicewomen in cases of rape or incest, coverage already extended to their civilian counterparts, ending 30 years of discrimination.

* Jeanne supported mandatory coverage for and free access to vital women's health services, including contraception and preventative cares like mammograms as part of the Affordable Care Act.

* Jeanne spoke out against the anti-choice Blunt Amendment that would harm women by allowing employers to deny insurance coverage for birth control and other critical healthcare services.

Combating Domestic And Sexual Violence

* Jeanne helped lead the successful fight to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act which is a proven tool that provides critical support to victims of domestic violence.

* Jeanne is working to ensure that sexual assault in the military is addressed seriously and called on Secretary Hagel to review how sexual assault cases are handled by the military.

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