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Quinn best choice for women, health and kids

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Christine Quinn this week presented a range of proposals on protecting the city against climate change-fueled flooding. Photo by William Alatriste/NYC Council

BY STEPHANIE SCHRIOCK | New York City is home to more than 8 million people. That means millions of people contributing to an economy of more than a trillion dollars. It means 8 million people in need of healthcare, and more than 1 million students in 1,700 public schools.

For someone who grew up in the Big Sky Country of Montana, fitting that many people into that small a space is seriously daunting. I understand you may have sacrificed some sky to do it. A city that complex, that diverse, that challenging and exciting and vibrant — it requires a leader with courage and conviction. It requires a leader with experience and vision.

It requires a leader who knows the city needs to work for everyone living in it — male, female, gay, straight, rich, poor, Mets, Yankees. That leader is Chris Quinn.

EMILY’s List has been in the business of electing women for decades. And we’re in this business for a reason. We have seen it work — time and time again.

Chris’s record proves she’ll be an advocate for progressive change, making New York City a better place for women and families.

Chris has the plans New York needs and the experience to make it happen. And in a few short days, New Yorkers will have the opportunity to make it known at the ballot box — to decide that having a tough, pragmatic woman lead our nation’s largest city is the best way to move us forward.

New York City is home to one of the world’s largest economies, but it doesn’t work for men and women equally. Chris will change that. Her plans for the city include growing economic opportunities for women, helping them find and keep good jobs. She’s passed paid sick leave and a living wage law. She’s fought for clinic access and healthcare. As mayor, Chris will ensure there are loans available to small businesses and see that more government contracts are awarded to local- and women-owned businesses.

And she’s focused on making sure that working in New York really works for all families. Chris will create a childcare tax credit, making childcare more affordable for more families. And she also supports plans to provide childcare at Workforce1 Centers and for the unemployed.

The key to a strong economy is investing in its future. Chris has been a leader in the fight for high-quality public education. She’s already saved more than 4,000 teachers’ jobs, which not only kept jobs but smaller classroom sizes. She’s supported those early investments by backing expanded, full-day pre-kindergarten and mandatory kindergarten. And she supports starting a “mentor teacher” program to help give new educators the guidance they need, as well as putting the focus of education more on learning and less on standardized testing.

A healthy city is a stronger city. As mayor, Chris will continue to build upon the expansion of primary-care services she’s already overseen at clinics around the city, including school-based health centers. She worked to ban smoking in public parks and on public beaches and supports commonsense initiatives to better the health and medical care of New Yorkers.

Protecting women’s access to all of the healthcare they need has always been a priority for Chris. Her record speaks for itself. She’s safeguarded access to emergency contraception and to reproductive health clinics. That’s a trend she will continue as mayor. And she’s prioritizing a plan to reduce the rates of teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections — and she wants to use health education to prevent intimate partner violence.

New York City is home to nearly half of the population of the state of New York, meaning the mayor can have an outsized influence on state policy, and with her agenda for women’s equality, I know that influence would be a positive one.

I can’t wait to see New York elect the most qualified candidate they’ve seen in years. And in the process, make history.

Schriock is president of EMILY’s List, a political action committee that is the nation’s largest resource for women in politics