Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, N.Y. Democrat who championed women’s rights, dies at 88

Rep Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY), a folksy New York liberal who championed women’s rights and American manufacturing for more than three decades as a Democratic congresswoman, and who became a top lieutenant for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as the first and only woman to lead the powerful Rules Committee, died March 16 at a hospital in Washington. She was 88 and the oldest sitting member of Congress. Initially one of just 29 women in the House of Representatives, Rep Slaughter was a flinty advocate of women’s access to health care and abortion. She was a co-author of the Violence Against Women Act, a landmark 1994 law aimed at curbing domestic abuse and aiding its victims. In 1991, she was part of a group of seven Democratic congresswomen who marched to the Senate to demand a delay in the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas.