A panel of three female legislators answered questions about their service and some of the reasons why it’s important to be involved at a recent Davis Chamber Women in Business meeting held at the Business Resource Center. Panelists were Reps. Ariel Defay, Rosemary Lesser and Karen Peterson. 

“I think it’s really important that we have women get involved,” said Defay. “I think a lot of times women are like, hey, I’m busy. I’m working. I have a family. I don’t think it’s going to work for me.”

The great thing about most public service positions is that they are part time, she said. “As a woman, you can make it work with your family. It’s doable. It’s hard and it takes some balancing and it takes support from family members or some nannies or whatever it is, but the fact that you’re here now tells me that you are 100% capable of holding any office in the state of Utah.”

Defay said she decided to run for office because she could see a gap. “It’s getting better but there aren’t enough women who run for office. Our voices are necessary and important. I saw that. I saw that 20 years ago when I worked in state government. I thought, ‘you know a lot of these policy decisions would be better if they had moms and women expressing their opinions.’”

“The person who preceded me in the legislature died suddenly,” said Lesser, who is a physician. “I was in labor and delivery, actually getting ready to deliver a baby and I got a call that said the representative had passed away and would I be interested in running. I did what any responsible obstetrician did. I said, ‘I have some other important work I need to do I will let you know in the morning.’”

This speaks to the point of sometimes these opportunities come up when they’re not expected, she said. “What I want to stress to all of you is that all of you have the potential to be able to do exactly what we are doing. You know we have what’s called a citizen legislature and you are citizens. I am a citizen.”

The women talked about some of the legislation they’ve championed that they’ve been passionate about. 

“Mine aligns very well with my contribution as an obstetrician legislator,” said Lesser. “That was the recognition that the postpartum period does not end 60 days after delivery.”

For any of you who have had a baby, you know that 60 days is not the time that magically everything that happened to your body in the previous nine months goes away and yet Medicaid health care benefits end in 60 days postpartum, she said. “When we looked at the data, we realized that we were losing Utah women much later than 60 days from issues related to untreated postpartum depression, substance use disorders and even without something as alarming as a death, people were having high blood pressure that wasn’t treated and heart conditions that developed after delivery.”

Lesser said she pushed hard and even got it into the governor’s budget to expand postpartum Medicaid to cover for one year. “I am happy that my friends all joined me and in the state of Utah, we are covering the women for an entire year after delivery. I am very proud of that.”

“I’ve been in the educational space so I do a lot about education,” said Peterson. “One of the things that’s kind of tough sometimes about being a legislator is you pass the bill then you just cross your fingers. You know that something good comes of it. We’re not the administrators or write the law, we hand those off.”

“Understanding the policy that goes on at the state level and how impactful it is on your day to day life is a thrill,” said Defay. “It’s fun and it’s also really really meaningful work.” λ