Issues

For decades, the government was removed from the choices we made with our own bodies, and that’s how it should still be today.

Fern believes that your personal healthcare decisions are best left up to you, not the rotating hands of a state government that changes members every 2 years. She supports the full range of reproductive healthcare options and opposes any effort to restrict or ban access to safe, legal medical procedures.

Our healthcare decisions are deeply personal, and shouldn’t be in the hands of politicians and the government. Fern is committed to making sure that never changes for Pennsylvanians, by enshrining reproductive freedoms into the PA constitution.

As a mother with sons who were born with a rare disease, the lack of insurance coverage for a main component of their care led Fern to fight for a better system for all of us.

She believes that accessible, affordable, and quality healthcare is a fundamental right, and has been advocating for fair coverage for over a decade in DC and now she wants to bring that fight to Harrisburg. She believes we can do better here in PA, including finding ways to finally provide our veterans with the essential eye and dental care they should never be without. 

She knows the system and the roadblocks, and she would be honored to advocate for Pennsylvanians to have accessible, improved, quality healthcare that brings costs down for working families. She helped get bills passed on the national level and didn’t back down until she saw results. Her voice is our voice.

Investing in our children is never the wrong thing to do, yet right now we are facing proposals in the state legislature that would wipe out over a billion dollars for our poorest students. 

Fern strongly believes that Pennsylvania public school students deserve an excellent quality education that isn’t dependent on their zip code. Locally, we are seeing an increase in our school taxes but not an increase in the quality of our public education, why? We need to combat voucher programs and charter schools that are taking vital resources away from an already underfunded public education system. Fern believes in full financial transparency, especially when it comes to our taxpayer dollars.  

 Fern knows that we need to change our student-to-teacher ratio and bring additional support into our classrooms. This would allow for more instruction time and individualized attention to provide a better quality education for ALL students. 

We can provide our students with the foundation they need to move on to higher education or compete in the workforce after they graduate, and provide our educators with the pay and resources that reflect the immense value they have as they shape our future generations. Fern will fight to make sure we do.

Decades of focusing on attracting big corporations with tax breaks hasn’t worked in our favor, and has only led to big, oftentimes out-of-state businesses reaping massive profits while we foot the bill.

Fern believes that tax breaks and other incentives should be going to the small local businesses that build up our local economy and strengthen our communities as well as our local farms that also have a direct impact on our health. Farm-to-table is how it used to be and we need to bring that back. Farmer’s markets should be a year-round staple in our communities. They are the ones giving back to us taxpayers.

Locally owned businesses and small family farms help make our communities what they are today and help sustainable jobs stay in the area for generations. That’s who we should be fighting for, and with Fern as our representative, that’s exactly what we’ll do.

Responsible legalization of recreational marijuana has had a substantial increase in revenue for the 24 states that have already legalized it, so why not legalize it here and unleash that economic potential for us as well?

Studies show that marijuana provides many health benefits including lowering blood pressure, reducing inflammation, treating gastrointestinal disorders, helping prevent seizures, helping patients battling cancer, as well as treating anxiety disorders including PTSD in our veterans. 

Fern believes that Pennsylvania can use the financial benefits of marijuana legalization to meet our needs by investing the tax dollars we gain from legal marijuana into non-discretionary funds that can be used for our property taxes, our public education, our elderly population, and finally provide our veterans with the essential eye and dental care they should never have been without. It is imperative that the funds be non-discretionary so they cannot be spent anywhere else.

Legalizing marijuana will have a nearly immediate impact on all of us and give us the financial relief we’ve long needed, This is a proven solution that has had a positive impact where it has been implemented. It’s time PA starts to get the same benefits. 

Price Gouging is something on all of our minds. As food prices and other costs of living continue to rise, it’s getting harder and harder for many of us to put food on our table and feel like we can get by month to month. We are all suffering from the costs of these unethical business practices. 

Fern believes that combating price gouging and bringing costs down has to be a top priority for our state’s leaders. We understand the economics of business and there is a clear distinction between successful versus exploitative. When corporations start to price gouge our basic necessities like food, utilities, and housing costs, we need our elected leaders to step in and protect us from these greedy entities. We, as a community suffer, from family to small business, quality of life goes down and time with our families is lost to working more and more to try and meet our basic needs. This isn’t an impossible ask, we just have to prioritize this critical issue.

Pennsylvania families shouldn’t have to worry about whether or not our paychecks will be enough to cover our basic needs. We deserve financial stability, and state leaders who have not only lived our lives but are fighting to better them. Fern will be the voice we need in Harrisburg.

For many of us, safety is always on our minds. We all want to live in the safest communities possible, where our kids can feel comfortable playing outside and we don’t have to worry about risks to our homes and families.

Fern believes that we deserve to feel safe in the communities we call home, with emergency responders who are well-paid and are provided with the resources they need to meet our needs. Recruitment, a living wage, and access to vital supplies is critical to the roles of our first responders. She continues to support strengthening our communities and getting additional funding for our firefighters and other first responders who put their lives and safety on the line to keep us safe.

When we feel safe, we thrive as a community. Fern has always supported our first responders and will continue to expand safety in our communities.

For homeowners, property taxes are a constant headache that has only has gotten worse year after year.

Fern supports measures to bring down property taxes and put that money back in the pockets of homeowners and their families. We shouldn’t continue to shoulder the costs alone while some people are on the verge of being taxed out of their homes, when we  can get immediate relief from a proven solution. Legalizing recreational marijuana is our path to lowering property tax for homeowners. We hear year after year that our leaders won’t increase taxes, yet they do. The state can stop this and provide immediate relief. 

Homeowners shouldn’t have to worry about whether or not their property taxes will break the bank. We deserve to feel financially secure and to have leaders who are working to bring these sizable costs down. No one should be taxed out of their home. Fern wants to stop this vicious cycle and step into 2025 with proven solutions.