John Edwards 2004 On The Issues
Standing Up For Women And
Families
Senator John Edwards is a strong supporter of women's rights,
families and the right to choose. He has worked to protect Roe vs. Wade
and has opposed anti-choice nominations. He has also been a leader on
women's health issues, including passing a real Patients Bill of Rights,
and has strongly supported equal pay for women. Senator Edwards also has
stood up for families, because he knows that being a parent is harder
than ever. His proposals will offer parents a chance to spend more time
with their children, and help parents instill strong values in our
children.
Standing Up For A Woman's Right To Choose
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Supporting Roe vs. Wade, Fighting
For a Federal Freedom of Choice Act. Edwards is a strong
supporter of Roe vs. Wade and a woman's right to choose. At a
January 2003 NARAL event, Edwards said he would "help lead a fight
to pass a federal freedom of choice act so that your right to choose
is guaranteed and protected no matter what the court does." He has
voted against Republican efforts to prohibit funding for choice for
federal employees, DC residents and women overseas at international
family planning centers. He also voted to eliminate a ban on
abortions at overseas military facilities, which would ban abortion
even if the woman paid for it herself.
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Opposing a Global Gag Rule.
Edwards opposes President Bush's reinstatement of the "Mexico City
policy" or "global gag rule," which prevents an organization from
receiving federal funding-or UN funding-if they provide abortions or
counsel patients about abortions.
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Opposing Anti-Choice Nominations.
Edwards, a member of the Judiciary Committee voted against the
nominations of John Ashcroft, Priscilla Owen, and Bill Pryor each
strongly opposed by pro-choice groups such as NOW, NARAL, and
Planned Parenthood.
Promoting Women's Health, Pay Equity
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Leading the Fight for a Real
Patients' Bill of Rights To Require HMOs to Cover OB/GYNs and Breast
Cancer Treatments. Edwards was a key leader on legislation that
would guarantee HMOs provide people the health care they pay for by
coauthoring the Bipartisan Patient Protection Act with Senators
Kennedy and McCain and leading the fight to pass the bill. He
supported requiring health insurance plans to allow any woman to
designate an OB/GYN doctor as her primary care physician and to
provide coverage for inpatient hospital care after any mastectomy,
lumpectomy, or lymph node dissection.
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Helping Victims of Domestic and
Sexual Violence. In 2002, Edwards introduced the Women in Trauma
Act, which would focus new federal efforts on improving mental
health and substance abuse services for women affected by domestic
or sexual violence. Edwards also introduced the Counseling in
Shelters Act to provide federal funding to enable shelters and other
community-based providers to hire trained mental health and
substance abuse counselors to help victims.
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Working to Increase Funding for
Women's Health Research. In 2001, Edwards authored a bill to
increase awareness of the link between periodontal disease in
pregnant women and birth defects. In addition, Edwards has voted to
increase funding for breast cancer research programs under the
National Institute of Health and Department of Defense. He has also
cosponsored several bills to provide funding for breast cancer
research and to promote awareness of the disease.
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Supporting Equitable Coverage of
Contraceptives. In March 2003, Edwards voted to require
equitable coverage of contraceptives. He cosponsored two bills to
require health plans to provide equitable coverage of prescription
contraceptive drugs in 1999 and 2001. Many insurance companies
commit the discriminatory health practice of covering prescriptions
but excluding coverage for birth control - a prescription needed
exclusively by women.
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Supporting Pay Equity. Edwards
knows that women still earn, on average, 78 cents for every dollar
earned by men. He cosponsored the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would
strengthen penalties against employers who deny women equal pay for
equal work.
Giving Parents More Choices At Work
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Assisting Parents Get Time with
Their Children. Senator Edwards has proposed a $2,500 family
leave tax credit, phased in over a period of years, that will
effectively provide paid leave without hurting businesses. While the
Family and Medical Leave Act gives 2/3 of Americans unpaid leave
when a new child is born, many American cannot afford to take unpaid
leave. Yet the danger with requiring paid leave is hurting small
businesses and costing jobs. This credit, offered to the working
parents of newborns as a refundable tax credit, would benefit about
3.5 million families a year. For families with newborns, the
proposal would more than double the existing child tax credit, and
like the existing credit, the proposal would phase out for families
earning more than $110,000.
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Expanding Family Leave. The
Family and Medical Leave Act helps many families each year spend
time with their children and elderly family members, but is too
limited in its scope. Parents of newborns should be able to take
unpaid leave on a part-time basis, provided they establish a real
schedule with their businesses. Edwards would also give parents
unpaid leave for parent-teacher conferences and would guarantee some
form of unpaid leave to millions of workers at small businesses who
get nothing now.
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Doubling Support for Elder Care.
Edwards would help the growing number of working parents who are
responsible for their own parents' or spouses' care by doubling
federal support for respite care and adult day care.
Offering Quality Afterschool
Opportunities
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Offering High-Quality Afterschool
Programs for Children Who Need Them. Edwards believes that with
more and more parents working, children need quality afterschool
programs to help them learn more and stay out of trouble. He
supports expanding quality afterschool programs to millions of
children whose parents want them. His initiative, phased in over
time, would be run through the states, with two requirements:
providing opportunities at or near every school, and making the
opportunities high-quality. Edwards opposed the Bush
administration's efforts to cut 500,000 afterschool slots, and
believes we should determine which programs work best and promote
those programs.
Supporting Parents' Values and
Encouraging Responsible Parents
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Encouraging Community Service.
Edwards will help high schools require community service as a
condition of graduation. Not all education takes place in the
classroom--community service is one of the best ways to encourage
our young people to get new experiences and become more involved in
their communities.
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Making The Internet a Safer Place
for Children. Edwards believes we must stop junk mail on the
internet. Today, providers use fake names to escape detection and
make pornography available to our children. We should pass a law
blocking this sort of fraud.
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Encouraging Responsibility from
Dads. While moms on welfare are required to work, and they get
help in finding it, dads have neither help nor the requirement. In
order to give fathers better means to support their children and be
valued members of their family and their community, we should
require fathers to work, give them help finding work, and make sure
child support goes to the parent, and not the government.
Offering Help for Senior Women
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Protect Social Security. Senator
Edwards knows that women are particularly affected by detrimental
changes in Social Security, and he strongly opposes recent efforts
to privatize Social Security, which would jeopardize benefits by
risking our Social Security funds in the stock market. Edwards also
opposes efforts to raise the retirement age and has called on
Congress and the administration to restore fiscal discipline to
Washington in order to preserve the Social Security Trust Fund and
our commitment to future generations.
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Lower-Cost Prescriptions For
All Seniors Through Medicare. Senator Edwards believes that we
need an affordable prescription benefit for senior citizens and
disabled Medicare beneficiaries. Edwards strongly opposes proposals
to require seniors to give up their traditional Medicare and go into
an HMO in order to get drug benefits. He strongly supports a
prescription drug benefit but believes the benefit proposed in
current legislation is too confusing and unstable, and does not do
enough to control prices.
Source: John Edwards for President 2004 Web Site
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