Ami Bera

I believe in the American Dream, because I've lived it.

For the record, I believe that women and their doctors should have access to oral contraception when desired by the patient and medically appropriate.

For the vast majority of Americans who work hard and play by the rules, paying the bills may be hard some months, but it's something we always do.

Sometimes as a parent, you have to give your child that doesn't do his or her chores some tough love and withhold the allowance.

What you say and do in a crisis matters.

As a physician, I would never encroach upon the religious freedoms of my patients.

Our nation is built upon a history of immigration, dating back to our first pioneers, the Pilgrims. For more than three centuries, we have welcomed generations of immigrants to our melting pot of hyphenated America: British-Americans; Italian-Americans; Irish-Americans; Jewish-Americans; Mexican-Americans; Chinese-Americans; Indian-Americans.

If our nation is to rebuild opportunity for future generations, it will require our elected leaders to realize that their responsibility lies not with their political party, but rather with the American people that they have been chosen to represent.

I love the opportunity to help my patients, to work with them to find the best course of action to get them healthy and to give them the information they need to stay healthy.

As a doctor, I've learned the importance and value of listening.

When I took the Hippocratic oath and was effectively 'sworn in' as a doctor, I took the same vow that doctors have taken for generations. Patient autonomy is core to this oath.

I hope I'll have the opportunity to debate how we reform and update our immigration system. I will relate my own story and that of the countless immigrants whose American Dream stories have helped build our country into the greatest nation in the world.

I ran for Congress because I want to make sure others have the same chance at the dream that I had for generations to come.

My job as a physician is to make sure I have provided my patients with the best options to make the decisions that affect their lives.

As a doctor, I understand how actions can affect lives.

Just like you can't cure a patient without listening to what he's feeling, you can't cure a nation without hearing what the people are really asking for.

We can do better, and we must hold the politicians accountable to do better.

If done correctly, strengthening our trade relationship with India will create jobs here in America.

I was born and raised in California and benefited from California's excellent public schools, from kindergarten through medical school.

Patient autonomy is paramount to the oath that we take when we enter the profession of medicine. That is why I am appalled when the federal government gets between my patients and their right to the full range of medical information and complete access to health care.