Women's rights and healthcare


There is likely no legislation that more clearly divides Republicans from Democrats than women's rights and women's healthcare (including but not limited to abortion rights). Even something as simple as "equal pay for equal work" meets heavy resistance from Republicans.

Occasionally, a couple or three Republican women will undertake legislation to differentiate between abortion for ectopic pregnancies and for other reasons. Their male colleagues--indeed, most Republican women--avoid them like the plague.

I came of age in the 1970s, when women struggled to have a bank account, obtain credit cards, or buy houses without a male "guardian" or husband cosigning. We had very little in the way of organized athletics. Where boys played basketball and tennis for high school P.E., we were stuck with "modern dance" and "gymnastics."

It seems inconceivable that we are having to relitigate and relegislate the gains from 50+ years ago.

Note: As with LGBTQIA+, civil rights, and immigration, you will notice a clear deficit in legislation of any sort in this category.

Proposed legislation:

  • October 10, 2025 – December 3, 2025: 
  • September 26, 2025 - October 9, 2025:
  • July 17, 2025 – August 22, 2025: Breast cancer and related; abortion rights; infertility; ectopic pregnancies; telehealth; data privacy.

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© 2025 Denise Elaine Heap. Please contact me for permission to quote.

Photo: Gettysburg monument to Elizabeth Thorn, Evergreen Cemetery caretaker's wife in 1863. While six months pregnant, she and her elderly father buried almost 100 dead Union soldiers in what would become Gettysburg National Cemetery. Photo © 2022 Denise Elaine Heap.