Bridge Project Statement on Sen. Rubio’s Family Leave Plan and the Independent Women’s Forum

This week Senator Marco Rubio claimed that he is working with Ivanka Trump on a paid family leave plan, something long overdue and desperately needed by American working families. However, early reporting indicates that the plan is actually just an ability to draw from Social Security and is based on policies touted by the Independent Women’s Forum, a right-wing interest group with ties to the Koch brothers.

“Senator Rubio and Ivanka Trump’s proposal for a so-called ‘budget-neutral’ family leave plan is not paid family leave at all, but rather a cut to Social Security that will particularly hurt low-income women,” said Dawn Huckelbridge, director of American Bridge’s Women’s Rights Initiative. “Women already receive less in earnings and Social Security benefits than men and are more likely to experience poverty, including in retirement. This is not a comprehensive fix for working families, but another hollow proposal that does not serve the women […]

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Bridge Project Statement on Senate Abortion Ban Vote

Dawn Huckelbridge, director of American Bridge’s Women’s Rights Initiative, released the following statement in response to the US Senate’s vote on a bill that would ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy and threaten doctors with jail time:

“Once again GOP leaders used women’s lives for political pandering by scheduling a vote on an unconstitutional abortion ban that would criminalize doctors and make no exception for the health of the mother. These kinds of bans are unpopular, scientifically unsound, and dangerously out of touch with the American people. Americans on both sides of the aisle have made it clear that this is not something Congress should be prioritizing. These complex and intensely personal decisions should stay in the hands of women in consultation with their doctors, not politicians — and voters agree.”

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Bridge Project Statement on HHS’s License To Discriminate

Dawn Huckelbridge, director of American Bridge’s Women’s Rights Initiative, released the following statement in response to the Donald Trump’s Department of Health and Human Service announcing a new Division on Conscience and Religious Freedom:

“Donald Trump’s administration is handing out permission slips for hospitals and providers to deny individuals, including women and LGBT patients, access to a full range of health services including life saving emergency care. If there is any doubt about how morally repulsive, politically unpopular, and far reaching the consequences of this rule will be, crafting it in secret behind closed doors and without public input says all you need to know.”

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Sanders Questions: Election Day Edition

It is Election Day in Alabama and the whole country is watching to see if President Trump’s candidate will prevail despite his rampant racist rhetoric and history of sexually abusing children. Disgustingly, but to the surprise of absolutely no one, President Trump kicked off the day by calling the women who have accused him of sexual misconduct liars (again) and sexually harassing Senator Kirsten Gillibrand on Twitter. He has no shame and it is up to those in his own party and in his own Administration to speak out against this behavior.

American Bridge Rapid Response Director Emily Aden calls on White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to answer the following questions:

1. Why is President Trump so afraid of powerful women like Senator Gillibrand?

2. Would President Trump cooperate in a congressional investigation into the dozens of sexual harassment and sexual assault allegations against him?

3. Secretary Mnuchin promised multiple times that the […]

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Sanders Questions: Women Are Watching Edition

Today, the White House doubled down on attacking three of the nineteen women who have accused President Trump of sexual misconduct as liars on a “publicity tour.” Fittingly, Trump also released a robocall in support of  child sexual predator Roy Moore on the eve of Election Day in Alabama. This administration continues to sink to new lows of disrespecting women and each and every person who enables President Trump to remain in the Oval Office should be ashamed.

American Bridge Rapid Response Director Emily Aden calls on White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to answer the following questions:

1. How can President Trump stump for a bill that will take money away from the bottom 95% of Americans by 2027?

2. Did President Trump keep Michael Flynn on as National Security Adviser for 18 days after being warned about Flynn by the Justice Department because he was the one who directed Flynn […]

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Trump and Moore Silence Women

Throughout the 2016 campaign, Donald Trump called the women who accused him of sexual harassment “horrible,” “liars,” and ugly, suggesting that they were too unattractive for him to assault. Now he’s using the full force of the White House press office to double down on those attacks and accuse three women who have come forward with their stories of lying. To no surprise, Trump’s candidate in Alabama is stealing a page out of his disgusting playbook and similarly attacking victims; this morning it was reported that Roy Moore’s campaign distributed a “primer” to volunteers and supporters painting his accusers as liars.

In response to these Republican attacks, American Bridge Rapid Response Director Emily Aden released the following statement: 

“Americans ought to be disgusted by Donald Trump and Roy Moore teaming up to attack women who are brave enough to expose them as sexual predators. Trump and Moore deserve each […]

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American Bridge Statement On Alex Azar Hearing

American Bridge Rapid Response Director Emily Aden released the following statement on Alex Azar’s confirmation hearing today before the Senate HELP Committee:

“This morning, Alex Azar failed miserably to convince the American people that he is anything other than a former drug company president looking out for his bottom line. Unsurprisingly, he doubled down on his hostility to the Affordable Care Act, women’s right to birth control coverage, and paid cheap lip service to the high costs of prescription drugs that made him his millions. In round after round of questioning he proved he simply has no good answer about his record raising the prices of life saving medication. If he is confirmed he will carry out the bidding of the industry that made him rich and his ultimate boss- Donald Trump.”

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Five Things To Know About Alex Azar

This morning the Senate HELP Committee will hold its first hearing on HHS Secretary nominee, and former Big Pharma CEO, Alex Azar. Azar is a candidate hand-picked for the drug and insurance companies and will do anything to keep industry profits high even when it means raising insurance premiums and costs for lifesaving medication for the American people. It’s no surprise Azar, like Donald Trump, wants to destroy the Affordable Care Act and turn Medicaid into a block grant program, both of which are on industry bucket lists, raise costs for consumers, and disproportionately hurt women and working families.

American Bridge Rapid Response Director Emily Aden stated, “Donald Trump picked Alex Azar to lead HHS because he knows he can trust Azar to carry out his dangerous and destructive health care agenda. From dismantling the Affordable Care Act, to raising prices for prescription drugs, to rolling back access to women’s health […]

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3 Women, 50 Men, 1 Trump

Today’s announcement of President Trump’s latest wave of US Attorney nominations continues his steady commitment to appointing men to positions of power over women. To date, he has made 53 US Attorney nominations and only three are women.

“We’ve said it before and we’ll keep repeating it: this administration doesn’t value women. This wave of nominations is just the latest proof,” said Emily Aden, director of American Bridge’s women’s health initiative. “Nominating men over women as US attorneys sets up men over women for future judgeships, not to mention it enforces blatant discrimination and lack of representation for half of the population in the country’s judicial system.”

In fact, Trump’s troubling pattern of putting women second extends beyond the judiciary to the rest of the federal government. For example, in September, American Bridge uncovered the fact that more than 80% of all Trump administration nominations are men. This means […]

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American Bridge Statement On Repeal Of Access To Birth Control For Hundreds Of Thousands Of Women

This morning, President Trump announced his administration will end guaranteed coverage for birth control without out-of-pocket costs, leaving it to individual employers to decide what health care services and prescriptions their female employees deserve to access.

In response, Emily Aden, Director of American Bridge’s Protect Women’s Health Care Initiative, released the following statement: 

“Access to birth control is fundamental to women’s health care, and to politicize it as the Trump administration is doing is an insult to women across the country. Decisions about birth control are decisions women make on their own with consultation from their doctors, not their bosses, and it’s sad that in this day and age politicians like Donald Trump still don’t understand that. He ought to be ashamed of this partisan attack on women’s health that will hurt hundreds of thousands of American women.”

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