Freedom, Privacy & Equality
Reproductive Freedom
Jan Schneider is a fervent advocate for women regaining reproductive freedom. Decisions about pregnancy and parenthood are deeply personal and highly consequential. I believe that they should be made by the pregnant woman and her medical advisers, not by politicians trying to control women’s bodies and restrict our rights.
The Right to Choose
On June 24, 2022, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the United States Supreme Court overruled the 1973 landmark case of Roe v. Wade. The Court thus reversed a constitutional right to pre-viability abortion in effect for half a century. Newly emboldened, lawmakers hostile to reproductive freedom, mostly Republicans, rammed through a barrage of abortion bans and restrictions mostly at state levels, some criminalizing actions of doctors and patients.
The Hyde Amendment
Moreover, for many, access to reproductive care was limited prior to the Dobbs decision. Starting in 1977, the Hyde Amendment has banned use of federal funds for abortion, with exceptions only for pregnancies that endanger the life of the woman or that result from rape or incest. The Hyde Amendment affects those who rely on government health insurance, including Medicaid enrollees, military and veterans covered by Tricare and the Veterans Health Administration, federal employees under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, Native Americans receiving care through the Indian Health Service, Peace Corps volunteers, federal prisoners and detainees and certain individuals on Medicare.
Protecting Medication Access
A further restriction is currently winding its way through federal courts. On May 14, 2026, in Louisiana v. FDA the Supreme Court blocked a ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that that would have restricted nationwide distribution of mifepristone, an abortion drug commonly used in conjunction with misoprostol, and that would have prevented its being prescribed via telehealth. The Court’s action for now leaves the current FDA rules in place, allowing the drug to be prescribed via telehealth and dispensed by mail or at retail pharmacies. But it does not determine the merits
The Full Meaning of Choice
Beyond the abortion issue, however, a woman’s right to choose should include the right to choose to bear a healthy child. For “choice” to be more than an abstract right or synonymous with abortion, it must include access to a full range of reproductive health and family planning options. This requires not only legislation, but also funding of programs to improve healthcare for pregnant women and young children — for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant Program, among others.
What Jan Will Fight For
Accordingly, I will fight immediately to pass legislation to restore Roe standards nationwide, to eliminate the Hyde Amendment and to protect prescription of reproductive drugs via telehealth and their distribution through the mails and by other means. There is also an immediate need to protect the right of interstate travel to obtain an abortion or other reproductive care. Beyond that, I will fight for the right to bear healthy children and for quality healthcare for pregnant women, mothers and children.
