At a time when we should be focused on expanding economic and educational opportunity for everyone and working for genuine fiscal responsibility, some lawmakers in Washington – and also in Richmond – instead prefer to play partisan politics with a woman’s access to health services.

What is at issue in the Senate today is the Blunt Amendment -- an amendment to a federal highway funding bill that would allow a corporation or health plan to deny women access to preventative health care. As the father of three daughters ages 22, 21 and 17, I am appalled that we’re even discussing a move that potentially could allow any employer to deny women access to health care for virtually any reason.

While I understand and respect that some people have deeply-held feelings on these issues, I am voting "no" because the Blunt Amendment goes too far and potentially opens the door to a whole host of unintended consequences.

A corporation could decide, for example, that cancer screenings are driving up their insurance costs and remove them from their health plan. An employer could also deny prenatal care for expecting mothers. In fact, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service estimates the Blunt Amendment could be used to limit or even eliminate access to preventative health care for almost 600,000 Virginian women.

We need to get back to work on this important highway funding bill – a measure which will create jobs and economic opportunity by funding important safety improvements to our roads and bridges.

This bipartisan jobs bill is simply too important to jeopardize with divisive and unrelated amendments.