“President Trump’s executive order, issued today, is a callous attack on the fundamental American value that religion should not be used to discriminate against others. This action will jeopardize women’s health, equity and economic security by instructing the Department of Health and Human Services to effectively roll back a critical provision in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that requires coverage of women’s preventive health benefits. These essential benefits range from contraception to screening and counseling for domestic violence, and from well-woman visits to breastfeeding support. Fifty-five million women have benefited from the ACA’s preventive services coverage; this order threatens to take that coverage away based on others’ religious beliefs.

Taken together, Trump’s order today and House Republicans’ support for the disastrous American Health Care Act constitute a devastating attack on women’s health, civil rights and equal justice. But these callous, politically motivated attacks are also a call to action that those of us dedicated to ensuring equality for all will defiantly answer. We will continue to stand strong and resist every effort to roll back the clock on the progress that women, people of color, immigrants, the LGBTQ community and many others have fought so hard to achieve. And we won’t back down.”