"I believe women's rights are fundamental individual rights. I will always stand up for the rights of New Hampshire women to make decisions over their own body and to ensure that women earn equal pay for equal work."
- Fighting to protect a woman's right to choose. Paul supports a woman's right to choose and believes women and their doctors - not politicians - should be able to make medical decisions governing their bodies. In the Senate, Paul will always fight to uphold the rights guaranteed by Roe v. Wade. Paul believes abortion can be made rare by providing access to age appropriate comprehensive sex education and family planning programs.
- Voting to give women equal pay for equal work.
Paul Hodes is a proud supporter of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, a new law that requires employers to offer equal pay for men and women performing the same jobs. This law allows victims of wage discrimination to seek justice by challenging their employer in court within 180 days of the last paycheck affected by alleged discrimination.
- Standing up to protect access to contraception for women. Paul Hodes has consistently fought to increase investment in confidential planning services, including contraception. These programs benefit millions of Americans each year by providing services that would otherwise be out of reach. Family planning clinics relying on this funding provide health care services and education that can help prevent unplanned pregnancy and protect patients from the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.
- Fighting to Eliminate Abstinence-Only Sex Education. Paul Hodes has fought to eliminate federal funding for ineffective, misleading and inaccurate abstinence-only sex-education programs. The ineffectiveness of these programs has limited access to contraception and increased the rates of sexually transmitted diseases and unplanned pregnancies.
- Standing up for New Hampshire consumer protections for women's health care, services like breast cancer screenings, prenatal care, & ob-gyn care. Paul Hodes has aggressively challenged his Republican opponents over their support of health care plans that would eliminate New Hampshire-based consumer protections related to women's health. Over 400,000 New Hampshire women depend on these protections that require insurance companies to provide coverage for procedures like breast cancer screenings and ob-gyn care.
