“Anti-choice Senate leaders have reached new levels of cynicism with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s announcement this weekend that he will not call a vote to confirm Loretta Lynch as Attorney General until the Senate passes the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act, which is now burdened with an anti-choice restriction that is harmful to women’s health.

It was outrageous to use legislation designed to help survivors of human trafficking as the vehicle to advance the extreme anti-choice agenda, once again playing politics with women’s health. It adds insult to injury to hold up the vote to confirm Lynch until that bill passes. Lynch is a highly qualified nominee who is poised to become the nation’s first African-American woman to hold the position of Attorney General, and she has already waited longer for a vote than any other nominee in recent history.

At this moment in history, when we have had so many reminders that discrimination still pervades our workplaces and communities, we urge Senate leaders to stop playing politics with women’s health and our nation’s justice system. Strike the abortion restriction in the human trafficking bill, confirm Loretta Lynch, and get back to the business of governing.”