| For Immediate Release: October 10, 2018 Contact: [email protected] |
After the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the nominations of two anti-choice judicial nominees, Chad Readler and Eric Murphy, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, NARAL Pro-Choice America Vice President Adrienne Kimmell issued the following statement:
“On the heels of confirming Brett Kavanaugh, the most unpopular Supreme Court justice by the smallest margin in history, Mitch McConnell and the anti-choice GOP are wasting no time filling our federal judiciary with even more biased and unqualified nominees. They’ve made it their personal mission to stack the courts against women and families, from the Supreme Court down to the Sixth Circuit with Readler and Murphy. Readler and Murphy have extensive anti-choice records, and will loyally advance the GOP’s vendetta against our fundamental rights. This time breaking with congressional norms and advancing without the blue slip of Readler and Murphy’s home state senator, the anti-choice GOP has shown they’ll stop at nothing to shape our country in Donald Trump’s dangerous image for generations.”
Chad Readler has vigorously defended the Trump administration’s efforts to stop undocumented young women from accessing abortion care. He is also defending rules put forth by the administration to gut the ACA’s contraceptive-coverage policy and has defended the administration’s cruel and inhumane family separation policy.
Eric Murphy defended Ohio’s efforts to defund Planned Parenthood and is a strong supporter of Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP) laws, burdensome requirements that restrict access to reproductive healthcare. He has also opposed the ACA’s contraceptive-coverage policy and supported a 20-week abortion ban.
In a break from Congressional norms, both Readler and Murphy’s nominations will advance without the blue slip of their home state senator Sherrod Brown. To learn more about Readler and Murphy’s anti-choice records, visit NARAL’s judicial nominees webpage.
NARAL Pro-Choice America and its network of state affiliates are dedicated to protecting and expanding reproductive freedom for all Americans. NARAL works to guarantee that every woman has the right to make personal decisions regarding the full range of reproductive choices, including preventing unintended pregnancy, bearing healthy children, and choosing legal abortion. In recognition of its work defending our constitutional right to choose, Fortune Magazine described NARAL as “one of the top 10 advocacy groups in America.”