The health and safety of half of the population is under attack.  Access to reproductive health care is essential to all Americans’ ability to control their lives.  It is a matter of health.  It is a matter of economics.  It is a matter of justice.  And it is not negotiable.

Protecting women’s access to safe and affordable reproductive health care is one of my top priorities.  I have been an advocate for this issue for more than 25 years.  When I was in high school, I stood outside a Houston Planned Parenthood clinic in the August heat to stop protestors who threatened to chain themselves to the doors and prevent women from entering the clinic.  After college, I co-founded Planned Parenthood Young Leaders to build a new generation of supporters for this important community partner and served on its Houston affiliate Board of Directors.

For decades, Republican legislators have warned that if given the chance, they would do everything in their power to overturn Roe v. Wade.  That day has come.  Texas and states across our country have banned abortion, stripping women of their freedom, dignity, privacy, and autonomy. 

Soon after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, I wrote the Ensuring Women’s Right to Reproductive Freedom Act to reaffirm the right to travel across state lines for an abortion.  My bill received overwhelming support and was endorsed by 13 organizations, including Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and passed the House in 2022.  To help ease the financial burden of people forced to travel for abortion, I also helped introduce the Reproductive Health Travel Fund Act.

I have co-sponsored and voted for the Women’s Health Protection Act to legalize abortion across the country and the Right to Contraception Act to codify the right for Americans to access contraception.  I am also fighting to protect the Title X Family Planning Program, which was introduced in the Congress by my TX-07 predecessor, then-Congressman George H.W. Bush. 

As the Whip of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus, I am standing up for the right for all Americans to have access to the full range of reproductive health care and to make their own health care decisions.