“Today, thanks to a cynical and misguided vote by the slimmest majority of senators, Congress is one step closer to causing tens of millions of people to lose their health coverage, ending Medicaid as we know it, causing health care costs to skyrocket, gutting essential consumer protections and defunding Planned Parenthood – which millions of women rely on for preventive and primary care. All this to give massive tax breaks to wealthy corporations.

If the Senate proceeds with repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the health, well-being and economic security of our nation’s women and families will suffer terribly. This would be a crisis of Congress’ making, brought on by Republican leaders’ obsession with repealing a law that has been the greatest advance for women’s health in a generation. It would be a triumph of putting party and politics over constituents and country. It would be a national disgrace.

The senators who voted to proceed today do not even know what legislation they supported, thanks to the disgraceful, secretive process Senate Leader Mitch McConnell used. But they do know that, if enacted, any repeal bill will cause grave harm to their constituents. Put simply, the health care repeal bills cannot be fixed. Every single analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office confirms that every iteration of this bill would take health coverage away from tens of millions of people. No modifications or giveaways can possibly make repeal acceptable.

Today’s vote to proceed was a vote to rip health coverage away from millions of people. If it stands, it will sacrifice the health coverage millions rely on in order to fund tax cuts for the wealthiest corporations, which need no further breaks. We will work tirelessly to ensure that a vote, expected later this week on a repeal bill, fails.

It’s well past time for Senate leaders to end this disgraceful chapter in our history and instead work in a bipartisan way to improve our health care system.”