Tag: reproductive health

The Right Choice

| by delsandy | Uncategorized | No Comments

51 years ago tonight, I was about to go out to dinner with my grandmother.

I was a first-year law student, and Grandma was setting sail from New York harbor the next day.

As Grandma got dressed, I was watching Walter Cronkite.  LBJ had died and Roe v. Wade had been decided.

At her 60th birthday party, Aunt Margie told her celebrants that, on the next day, when the House of Delegates was expected to enact the legislation making the Roe standard the law of Maryland, I would be one of the floor leaders.

My first substantive conversation with Rachel, my niece, was about a woman’s right to choose.  She was a Boston University undergrad at the time.  Now she is the mother of two girls.

This morning, I wrote Aunt Margie, Rachel, and my cousin, Babette, named after my mother:

“As you know, I am so proud of the role I have played in protecting the health and well being of the women I know and love and the women I serve.”

Thank You!

| by delsandy | Uncategorized | No Comments

People like to be asked for their vote and thanked for their vote.

Tip O’Neill, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, said that.

I asked for your vote with my work over the last four years – on issues in Annapolis and on problems back home.

I write now to thank you for your vote in the Democratic primary.

My colleagues, Senator Jill Carter, Delegates Dalya Attar and Tony Bridges, and I received more votes than any other General Assembly candidates in Baltimore City.

That’s a tribute to our working together on your behalf and to your exercising your right to vote.

Now it’s time to turn to the general election in November and the legislative session next winter.

The choice for Governor is clear.

I supported Wes Moore in the primary because of his positions on the issues and his broad experience in the public and private sector.

Wes Moore has pledged to implement a Service Year Option program that will enable Maryland high school graduates “to serve for a year in a public service role in exchange for job training, mentorship, and other support, including compensatory tuition at a Maryland college or university.”

During my career, I have enacted legislation to encourage students to enter public service.

Wes and I have already discussed this issue, and I look forward to working on it with him in Annapolis.

We also agree on two issues – reproductive health care and gun safety, that the Supreme Court has put on our agenda.

We must make access to reproductive health care affordable and accessible for all women so that they can receive the treatment they choose.

The Maryland law licensing the carrying of handguns in public must now be revised.  We must ensure public safety consistent with the Supreme Court’s ruling.

There’s lots of work to be done.  I welcome your thoughts on these and other issues.

Thank you again for your support.

Not this time

| by delsandy | Sandy's 2017 Legislative Diary | No Comments

I usually hang up on telephone solicitors.

But not this time.

This call was from Planned Parenthood.

I did, however, interrupt the caller’s spiel to tell him what we are on the verge of doing in Maryland.

Tonight, the Senate will debate the House bill that would require the State to fund reproductive health services for the women who choose to go to Planned Parenthood.

The legislation would take effect if the Congress deprives the organization of existing federal funding.

Such a provision was in the GOP health care bill that was withdrawn on Friday.

But it will be back.

Another legislative vehicle will surely be found to push this bad idea forward.

My caller yesterday, a college student, had no idea about what we are doing in Maryland.

If we succeed here, that reinforced my idea of advocating that other blue states do the same.

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