Confirmation of Senator Jeff Sessions as U.S. Attorney General Would Threaten the Rights of Women, says NWLC

"No window dressing can camouflage the simple fact that the confirmation of Senator Jeff Sessions as Attorney General would seriously threaten the rights of women and their families. Senator Session's record on women's legal rights and protections is dismal. And it is those very rights that the Attorney General must enforce. He has described Roe v. Wade as one of the worst, 'colossally erroneous Supreme Court decisions of all time.' And his repeated opposition to legislation providing women access to reproductive care, including abortion and contraception, underscores his hostility to women's right to this basic health care. He has consistently opposed laws protecting women's right to equal pay, including the bipartisan Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. He has repeatedly taken positions hostile to the rights of women subjected to violence and sexual assault-including voting against the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act and voting to block a bill that would have increased protections from sexual assault for military members. When a tape in which Donald Trump described sexually assaulting and harassing women was released in October 2016, Sessions said that he wasn't even sure that grabbing a woman by her genitals is sexual assault. He has opposed bedrock civil rights protections such as the Voting Rights Act and even called the NAACP and the ACLU 'un-American' and 'Communist-inspired.' Sessions has been a leading voice in Congress against immigration reform and favored drastically reducing legal immigration. He has regularly opposed antidiscrimination protections for LGBTQ individuals."

"With so much on the line, we urge the Senate to protect Americans' hard won legal and constitutional rights and refuse to confirm Senator Sessions as the chief law enforcement officer of the land." 

The National Women's Law Center is a non-profit organization that has been working since 1972 to advance and protect women's equality and opportunity.  The Center focuses on major policy areas of importance to women and their families including economic security, education, employment and health, with special attention given to the concerns of low-income women.  For more information on the Center, visit: www.nwlc.org.