Gov. Inslee Issues Statement on Efforts to Restrict Birth Control

OLYMPIA, Wash., Oct. 6 -- Gov. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., issued the following statement regarding the Trump Administration's move to eliminate the Affordable Care Act's requirement for health insurers to provide free birth control to women. Access to birth control has reduced unintended pregnancy rates overall and among teens to the lowest they have been in decades and saved women $1.4 billion in 2013 alone. Nearly nine in 10 women use birth control in her lifetime.

"Access to affordable birth control is among the most essential and basic health benefits women rely on.

"Today the Trump administration took aim at birth control coverage for 62.4 million women nationwide.

"The president has turned a crucial health care tool for women into a senseless and reckless political ploy.

"There is no legitimate rationale for taking away women's access to birth control, and there is no way we will allow this rollback of women's health care to happen without a fight."