WOMEN'S HEALTH + SAFETY

Too many women spend years fighting for a diagnosis, survive preventable pregnancy complications, or face violence without the protection and support they deserve. In many cases, women's pain is dismissed, their symptoms minimized, their medical conditions underdiagnosed, and their safety treated as an afterthought.

As a nurse and patient advocate, Elizabeth believes women deserve to be heard, protected, and empowered at every stage of life.

From early diagnosis to maternal health, from reproductive care to freedom from violence, women's health and safety must be a national priority.

Women's safety is more than protection from violence. Both are fundamental to living with dignity, independence, and opportunity.

WOMEN'S HEALTH

Improve Early Detection and Treatment of Endometriosis, PCOS, and Chronic Pelvic Pain

• Expand access to early screening, timely specialist referrals, and evidence-based diagnostic evaluation for endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), adenomyosis, and other frequently overlooked gynecologic conditions.

• Support training for pediatricians, primary care providers, and school health professionals to recognize warning signs of reproductive health disorders in adolescents.

• Expand research funding through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for improved diagnostics, treatments, and long-term management of endometriosis and chronic pelvic pain.

• Improve insurance coverage for medically necessary diagnostic procedures, pelvic floor physical therapy, pain management, and appropriate treatment.

• Promote earlier evaluation when severe menstrual pain, abnormal bleeding, or other symptoms interfere with daily life.

Why it matters: Debilitating menstrual pain should never be dismissed as "just part of being a woman." Early recognition and appropriate treatment can reduce years of unnecessary suffering and help protect long-term health.

Expand Comprehensive, Medically Accurate Health and Sexual Education

• Support age-appropriate, evidence-based health education that teaches young people how their bodies work, including puberty, menstruation, reproductive anatomy, fertility, and common warning signs of medical conditions.

• Ensure education includes consent, healthy relationships, personal boundaries, contraception, STI prevention, and recognition of abuse.

• Promote menstrual health literacy so young people understand when symptoms warrant medical attention.

• Support medically accurate resources that empower parents and caregivers to have informed conversations with their children.

• Expand access to reproductive and sexual health education for adults, including people who never received comprehensive education in school.

Why it matters: Understanding your own body is not controversial. It is foundational to recognizing illness, preventing harm, making informed decisions, and knowing when to seek medical care.

Guarantee Comprehensive Prenatal AND Postnatal Care

• Protect access to early and consistent prenatal care, including screenings, maternal-fetal medicine, nutritional support, and mental health services.

• Establish comprehensive postpartum care standards that extend well beyond the traditional six-week appointment.

• Guarantee 12 months of postpartum Medicaid coverage nationwide and fight for affordable continuity of care across all insurance plans.

• Expand access to postpartum depression, anxiety, and perinatal mental health screening and treatment.

• Improve access to lactation support, pelvic floor rehabilitation, postpartum physical therapy, and treatment for birth-related injuries.

• Support home-visiting programs, community health nurses, doulas, midwives, and other qualified maternal healthcare professionals.

Why it matters: Healthcare should not end when a baby is born. Recovery from pregnancy and childbirth is a process, not a six-week deadline. Every mother deserves continued care, support, and protection.

Prevent Severe Maternal Morbidity and Life-Threatening Postpartum Complications

• Establish stronger national standards for identifying, preventing, and responding to severe maternal complications, including hemorrhage, sepsis, stroke, blood clots, cardiomyopathy, and hypertensive emergencies.

• Prioritize education, early detection, and rapid treatment of postpartum preeclampsia and eclampsia, including complications that first develop after delivery.

• Expand access to blood pressure monitoring, remote patient monitoring, and timely follow-up for patients at increased risk of hypertensive disorders.

• Support evidence-based hospital emergency protocols, maternal early-warning systems, rapid-response teams, and standardized escalation procedures.

• Require improved reporting and review of severe maternal morbidity, not only maternal deaths, to identify preventable complications and opportunities for improvement.

• Strengthen maternal safety programs in rural and underserved communities where specialty and emergency obstetric services may be difficult to access.

• Invest in research and long-term follow-up for women who survive serious pregnancy complications but experience lasting cardiovascular, neurological, physical, or psychological consequences.

Why it matters: Surviving childbirth should not be the only measure of successful maternal healthcare. Women can develop life-threatening complications days or weeks after delivery, sometimes after an otherwise uncomplicated pregnancy. We must stop waiting until mothers are critically ill before taking their symptoms seriously.

Protect Access to Infertility Diagnosis and Treatment

• Protect nationwide access to in vitro fertilization (IVF), fertility preservation, and other medically appropriate fertility treatments.

• Fight for comprehensive insurance coverage for infertility evaluation, medications, procedures, and assisted reproductive technologies.

• Support timely infertility evaluations, particularly when symptoms or known medical conditions warrant earlier intervention.

• Expand fertility preservation coverage for patients facing cancer treatment or other medically necessary therapies that threaten reproductive function.

• Support transparent fertility treatment pricing, evidence-based clinical practices, and strong patient protections.

• Expand research and public education about infertility, recurrent pregnancy loss, and reproductive health conditions.

Why it matters: Infertility is a medical condition, not a lifestyle choice. The opportunity to build a family should not depend on someone's income, employer, or ZIP code.

Support Families Experiencing Pregnancy and Infant Loss

• Expand access to compassionate, specialized care for miscarriage, stillbirth, neonatal death, and recurrent pregnancy loss.

• Support paid bereavement leave following pregnancy or infant loss.

• Improve access to appropriately indicated genetic testing, pathology evaluation, and clinical investigation following pregnancy loss.

• Increase research funding into preventable causes of miscarriage, stillbirth, and neonatal mortality.

• Expand mental health and bereavement support for parents and families, including specialized counseling and peer-support services.

• Ensure hospitals have access to trained perinatal bereavement professionals and family-centered protocols that respect each family's wishes.

Why it matters: Pregnancy and infant loss are not simply medical events. They are deeply personal losses that can affect families for a lifetime. Parents deserve answers when possible, compassionate care, and the time and support necessary to grieve.

End Diagnostic Delays for Women with Rare, Complex, and Chronic Diseases

• Increase NIH funding for research into rare diseases, autoimmune conditions, connective tissue disorders, and conditions disproportionately affecting women.

• Expand access to multidisciplinary diagnostic evaluation, genetic counseling, and medically appropriate genetic testing.

• Improve insurance coverage for specialist consultations and diagnostic services when symptoms remain unexplained.

• Support clinical education addressing diagnostic bias and the historical underrepresentation of women in medical research.

• Promote coordinated care models that reduce the burden on patients navigating multiple specialists.

• Strengthen patient advocacy and appeal protections when medically necessary testing or treatment is denied.

Why it matters: Women should not have to spend years proving they are sick before receiving appropriate medical attention. A healthcare system that dismisses symptoms instead of investigating them is a system that needs fixing.

Advance Preventive Care and Women's Health Research Across the Lifespan

• Protect access to evidence-based breast, cervical, and other cancer screenings.

• Expand research into cardiovascular disease in women, including differences in symptom presentation and risk recognition.

• Improve access to menopause and perimenopause care, including evidence-based hormonal and nonhormonal treatment options.

• Increase research funding for conditions that have historically been understudied in women.

• Expand access to preventive services, including osteoporosis screening, cardiovascular risk assessment, and appropriate reproductive health care.

• Improve access to women's healthcare in rural communities and medically underserved areas.

Why it matters: Women's healthcare cannot begin at puberty and end after childbearing. Every stage of life deserves the same attention, scientific investment, and quality of care.

WOMEN'S SAFETY

Strengthen Protections Against Domestic Violence and Intimate Partner Abuse

• Protect and expand funding authorized under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).

• Increase access to domestic violence shelters, transitional housing, emergency relocation assistance, and legal advocacy.

• Support trauma-informed training for law enforcement, healthcare professionals, and judicial personnel.

• Strengthen enforcement of firearm restrictions applicable to domestic abusers and improve implementation of protective orders with appropriate due-process safeguards.

• Expand access to financial assistance, childcare, employment protections, and safe housing for survivors rebuilding their lives.

• Improve identification and intervention for coercive control, stalking, financial abuse, and technology-facilitated abuse.

Why it matters: Leaving an abusive relationship should not mean choosing between personal safety, homelessness, financial ruin, or losing access to one's children. Survivors deserve a realistic path to safety and independence.

Prevent Sexual Assault, Rape, and Gender-Based Violence

• Strengthen federal funding for sexual assault prevention, survivor advocacy, and crisis response services.

• Expand access to Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANEs), forensic medical examinations, and trauma-informed healthcare.

• Support timely processing of sexual assault evidence kits and stronger systems for tracking evidence.

• Protect access to emergency contraception, STI prevention, medical treatment, and mental health services following sexual assault.

• Strengthen accountability for institutions that conceal abuse, retaliate against survivors, or fail to investigate credible allegations.

• Support prevention programs that address sexual coercion, harassment, exploitation, and violence.

Why it matters: No survivor should be forced to navigate a maze of medical bills, legal barriers, institutional indifference, and repeated trauma simply to seek safety or justice.

Make College Campuses Safer for Women

• Strengthen enforcement of Title IX protections against sexual harassment and sexual violence in federally funded educational institutions.

• Require clear, accessible reporting procedures and timely, impartial investigations that protect complainants' and respondents' rights.

• Protect students from retaliation when reporting sexual assault, harassment, stalking, or dating violence.

• Expand access to confidential survivor advocates, counseling, medical care, and academic accommodations.

• Support prevention education covering consent, bystander intervention, healthy relationships, and alcohol-facilitated sexual assault.

• Improve campus safety planning, including accessible emergency reporting systems, appropriate lighting, safe transportation options, and coordinated responses to credible threats.

• Require meaningful transparency and accountability for institutional failures to protect students.

Why it matters: A young woman should be able to pursue an education without fearing for her safety or her future if she reports an assault. A college education should open doors, not expose students to preventable violence and institutional betrayal.

Protect Women from Stalking, Harassment, and Technology-Facilitated Abuse

• Strengthen legal protections against cyberstalking, online threats, doxxing, and technology-enabled intimate partner abuse.

• Support federal safeguards against the creation and distribution of nonconsensual intimate images, including AI-generated sexual deepfakes.

• Improve protections against misuse of location tracking devices, surveillance technology, and personal information by stalkers and abusers.

• Support victim-centered reporting systems and effective cooperation between technology companies and law enforcement.

• Invest in digital safety education and resources for victims seeking to secure their accounts, devices, and personal information.

Why it matters: Abuse does not stop at the front door. Technology should empower women, not provide new tools for intimidation, exploitation, and control.

Combat Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation

• Strengthen prevention and survivor services for victims of sex trafficking and labor trafficking.

• Improve coordination between healthcare providers, social services, victim advocates, and law enforcement to identify and assist victims.

• Expand access to safe housing, trauma-informed healthcare, legal services, and long-term recovery resources.

• Support accountability for traffickers and exploiters while protecting victims from being punished for crimes they were coerced into committing.

• Improve public education about trafficking risks, recruitment tactics, and available resources.

Why it matters: Trafficking victims need protection, stability, and a pathway to recovery. Effective public policy must focus on preventing exploitation, holding perpetrators accountable, and helping survivors rebuild their lives.

Protect Women in the Workplace

• Strengthen protections against sexual harassment, workplace assault, discrimination, and retaliation.

• Support pay transparency and meaningful enforcement of equal-pay protections.

• Protect pregnant workers' rights to reasonable accommodations and safe working conditions.

• Expand access to paid family and medical leave.

• Strengthen protections for healthcare workers, service workers, and others facing elevated risks of workplace violence.

• Improve accountability for employers who ignore credible complaints or retaliate against employees who report misconduct.

Why it matters: Every woman deserves to earn a living without sacrificing her safety, dignity, health, or economic independence.

Protect Women and Girls Facing Heightened Risks of Violence

• Improve protections for women with disabilities, older women, and others who may depend on caregivers or institutions for their daily needs.

• Strengthen safeguards against sexual abuse and exploitation in long-term care facilities, group homes, detention facilities, and other institutional settings.

• Expand access to accessible shelters, interpreters, disability accommodations, and culturally responsive victim services.

• Improve reporting mechanisms and independent oversight in settings where victims may face significant barriers to reporting abuse.

• Support prevention and response programs for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

• Ensure survivors can seek protection regardless of income, disability, immigration status, or geographic location.

Why it matters: Safety must extend to women who face the greatest barriers to being heard, believed, or protected. No person's vulnerability should become someone else's opportunity to exploit them.

Invest in Prevention, Not Just Punishment

• Expand community-based violence prevention programs grounded in evidence and measurable outcomes.

• Support healthy relationship education, early intervention, and programs addressing patterns of abusive behavior.

• Invest in accessible mental health services, substance use treatment, and family support programs as part of broader prevention efforts.

• Strengthen coordination among schools, healthcare systems, victim advocates, and public safety agencies.

• Evaluate prevention programs for effectiveness and direct resources toward approaches that demonstrably reduce violence.

Why it matters: Accountability matters. But real public safety also means preventing violence before someone is harmed.

Being pro-family means protecting mothers before, during, and after pregnancy. Being pro-liberty means ensuring women have autonomy over their bodies, their healthcare, and their futures. Being pro-Arizona means building communities where women and girls can learn, work, raise families, and live without fear.