Records and of the Joint Legislative Task Force on Small Group Market Health Insurance. In 2004, she was a member of the House Medical Malpractice Workgroup. She is a member of the Women's Caucus. She has served as chair of the Howard County Delegation from 1997-2000, 2005-2006 and 2015-2016. Pendergrass' committee assignments led her to develop an interest and expertise in health insurance issues. Over the course of her legislative career, she has sponsored numerous bills with the goal of making health care accessible and effective for Marylanders, including a 2001 bill to provide affordable prescription drug coverage to seniors. That bill was ultimately incorporated into a comprehensive health bill that became law. In 2007, she was among the first legislators to begin advocating for Electronic Health Records, including sponsoring a law passed in 2008 Search - Legislation that allowed for electronic signatures. Pendergrass also sponsored successful legislation halting the proposed conversion of CareFirst Blue Cross/Blue Shield to a for-profit company, and a subsequent bill establishing increased oversight of the CareFirst Board of Directors. She was active in the Medical Malpractice workgroup and sponsored a successful law in 2006 requiring public reporting of Healthcare-Associated Infections rates in the state-mandated "Hospital Report Card." Pendergrass was a strong defender of abortion rights, including co-sponsoring the Abortion Care Access Act in 2022, which the General Assembly passed over the veto of Gov. Larry Hogan. The law allows nurse practitioners, licensed certified midwives, and other trained professionals to perform abortions, in addition to physicians. It also provides $3.5 million for training of abortion providers. In May 2022, after a leaked draft of a decision in the Supreme Court's Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization portended the end of a constitutional right to an abortion, lawmakers in the Women's Legislative Caucus of Maryland called on Hogan to release the training funding a year early, in July 2022. He refused to do so. In 2017, she sponsored legislation guaranteeing funding for Planned Parenthood services in the event the Trump administration carried out its threat to end Title X funding. She also took steps to safeguard the separation of church and state, objecting to prayers "in Jesus' name, Amen." Early in her career, she objected to these explicitly sectarian prayers by slamming her desk top in the House chamber. Instead of clergy delivering religious prayers, the House of Delegates members now offer reflections. During the COVID-19 pandemic,