Today, ahead of the Trump campaign’s “Women for Trump” event in Maine, the Maine Democratic Party hosted a roundtable with State Senator Cathy Breen (D-Cumberland) and State Representative Lois Galgay Reckitt (D-South Portland) to discuss the myriad ways in which Donald Trump’s presidency has failed women. 

Despite claiming he would “do more for women than anyone else”, in reality, Trump’s presidency has been nothing short of disaster for women. His administration is attempting to eliminate the Affordable Care Act which would strip health care coverage from tens of thousands of Maine women and bring us back to a time when being a woman itself was considered a pre-existing condition. He’s relentlessly attacked reproductive rights, nominating hundreds of anti-choice judges to the federal bench. And he’s implemented cruel regulations threatening to silence survivors of sexual assault and endanger vulnerable students. 

Today’s roundtable touched on each of these topics and more. You can watch a recording of the full event here or read excerpts from the participants below:

Maine Democratic Party Chair Kathleen Marra:

“Before he entered office, Trump repeatedly promised that he would ‘do more for women than anybody else’ and look out for their reproductive health and their personal safety. Over the course of the last three and a half years, Trump has repeatedly broken that promise. His policies on health care, reproductive rights, workplace issues and sexual assault are a disaster for women.”

Senator Cathy Breen, D-Cumberland:

“Because of the work of my committee, we funded expansion of Medicaid in Maine. There’s now about 70,000 more Mainers—low income Mainers—who are eligible for health care under the Affordable Care Act. And that is something that President Trump has threatened over and over and over again, and has said he is determined to repeal.”

On Trump’s pandemic response: “Rather than to enlist and use all the tools that a President has at his disposal, he has absolutely put his head in the sand and that has had a disproportionate effect on women, and women in Maine. As we know, women are the vast majority of direct care workers, especially women of color.”

“It’s no secret that the President has walked hand in hand with Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans in nominating and confirming judges. We all have very little faith that if Roe vs. Wade comes to the Supreme Court that they will, in fact protect it. Again, we’ve had to take measures in Maine, which we did in this session because we have a Democratic majority in the House and Senate, we have a Democratic governor. So during this session we actually passed six bills protecting or expanding women’s access to reproductive healthcare.”

Representative Lois Galgay Reckitt, D-South Portland:

“The current…[Secretary] of Education in Washington not only does she not like public schools… how are you going to appoint someone to head the Department of Education who is against public schooling, I can’t even fathom… but [Secretary] DeVos has really been trying to weaken Title IX, which has been a stalwart for women for a long time in the school system. So that’s a piece that really bothers me.”

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