“The introduction of the budget resolution in the U.S. Senate today has started the countdown to the demise of critical health care protections we worked so hard to achieve for women and families through the Affordable Care Act (ACA). It is shameful that on day one of the 115th Congress, Republicans wasted no time in implementing their plan to take away health insurance from tens of millions of people.

This budget resolution is designed to fast-track repeal of the ACA without offering a replacement plan of any kind. Repealing the ACA without a replacement will increase health care premiums and eliminate insurance coverage for millions of women and families. To be clear, a vote for the budget resolution as introduced today is a vote to take health coverage away from 30 million people, 82 percent of whom are working families.

The ACA is the greatest advance for women’s health in a generation; among other provisions, it provides access to affordable birth control and coverage for maternity services, and it ends the practice of charging women higher premiums simply because of their gender. Repealing the law without a replacement proposal not only puts women’s access to health care in dire jeopardy, but also threatens their overall economic security.

Today’s budget resolution is also the first step in Republican leadership’s plan to cut off federal funds for Planned Parenthood health centers and thereby deny millions of patients access to birth control and other preventive care. Barring Medicaid from reimbursing Planned Parenthood for services bars Planned Parenthood’s low-income patients from accessing essential health care, and would have a devastating impact on public health.

Congress should be focused on ensuring that high-quality coverage and access to care is available and affordable to all – not on taking health care away from those who need it. Our leaders in Washington should be focused on making women’s health, including reproductive health, a priority, which is critical to our families, our economy and the country.”