Shame on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

Washington, D.C. – Just last fall, numerous Republican candidates successfully campaigned for U.S. Senate seats claiming to be pro-woman. Now is their chance to prove themselves. Will they publicly denounce Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s outrageous maneuvers to attach an anti-abortion rider to an anti-human trafficking bill?

Last week, Senate Republican leadership snuck a stealth anti-abortion rider into the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act — a vicious attack on some of the most vulnerable women and girls. Trafficked women and girls are regularly subjected to rape and sexual assault, and they must have access to the full spectrum of care they need, including emergency contraception and abortion. Terminating a pregnancy caused by rape is a decision for the rape victim herself, not politicians in the U.S. Senate.

Thankfully, women’s rights supporters in the Senate cried foul, and have thus far stopped the Republican leaders’ gambit.

But Sen. McConnell is in a particularly ugly way. He is holding up the nomination of Loretta Lynch, who would be our first African American woman Attorney General, as a hostage to force passage of the trafficking bill with the anti-abortion rider attached. NOW has urged the swift confirmation of Loretta Lynch, a proven leader whose qualifications and strong experience are undeniable. McConnell needs to stop playing politics with the nomination of this distinguished nominee.

NOW calls on every senator, especially those who campaigned as supportive of women, to denounce Mitch McConnell’s anti-woman, anti-abortion, anti-trafficking victim machinations for what they are: harmful, demeaning and shameful.

Contact: Elise Coletta, elise@now.org, (951) 547-1241