Ruth Ann Palumbo
Ruth Ann Palumbo (born July 7, 1949) is the longest-serving woman in the Kentucky House of Representatives and has represented District 76, which covers downtown Lexington, Kentucky and eastern Fayette County, since 1991. Palumbo is a member of the Kentucky Democratic Party. Through her career, Palumbo has pushed for legislation concerning "more thorough investigations of child sexual abuse; Kentucky's compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act [...]; and sponsorship of bills to protect the elderly in nursing homes," as well as bills to do with women's health, mammogram access, and healthcare in general. Politics In 1998, Palumbo helped pass the Women's Health Act of 1998, which brought reconstructive mastectomies after breast cancer under coverage of medical insurance, as it previously had been considered cosmetic. In the 2000s, Palumbo began caucusing with other female legislators (including included Joni Jenkins, Susan Johns, Eleanor Jordan, Mary Lou Marzian, Kathy Stein, and more) to track legislation in their individual fields of expertise and work together to affect legislation more easily than they could have done alone. One early victory involved "building statewide opposition to a bill that, before their organized effort, likely would have gone unnoticed and passed easily, [...] removing the requirement that