Senator Sharon Grosfeld was a reliable, strong and passionate voice for women’s rights and women’s health during her twelve years in the General Assembly. With her retirement we lost that voice in the trenches in Annapolis, and have yet to replace it.

Sharon has been my primary role model since I began considering a political career. I want to continue her work, even if I cannot replace her voice, with my own passion and special skills as both a woman and a physician.

What are the critical health issues facing women in Maryland these days? Most derive from the attempt of a small group of religious extremists to stigmatize women, to hoist their retrosexual agenda on the state and country. All involve turning the clock back to a time when women were the property of their fathers and husbands, when single women were scorned and economic opportunities for all women were severely restricted. To a time before women were finally able to exert control over their bodies and reproductive lives.

The issues:

• Legal obligation of physicians and other health care workers, to treat all patients.
• Safe and affordable access for all women to all forms of contraception.
• Legal obligation to dispense contraception by pharmacists without exception.
• Insurance coverage of all forms of contraception.
• Making abortion safe and accessible to all women without exception.
• Prohibiting religious pregnancy “clinics” from deceiving the public.
• Fully implementing the teaching of comprehensive sex education.
• Comprehensive HIV prevention and treatment programs.
• Increased attention paid to the unique health concerns of minorities, including African-American, Hispanic, Asian, gay and transgender women. We have made progress in Montgomery County over the past two years, and are planning a significant Women’s Health Initiative in fall 2008.
• Funding studies on the effects of endocrine disrupting compounds, which include DES, phthalates, bisphenol A and a host of pesticides and plastics, on human sexuality and reproductive health.
• Providing adequate treatment, child care and legal/forensic support to victims of rape and domestic violence. The new Family Justice Center in Rockville will take the lead in providing such a full-service environment.

I have lived with many of these issues, and I am fully committed to speaking out on the floor of the House and in the halls of the august buildings of the Capitol.

But I will not simply speak out - I will engage those opposed to this agenda in fair and open dialogue. As a woman steeped in the words of the Bible in their original language, and having been raised in an orthodox Jewish environment, I will use my life’s experiences to continue to meet with members of faith communities to move forward in providing quality medical care to all and science education to our children while respecting everyone’s rights under the First Amendment.