| For Immediate Release: October 11, 2018 Contact: [email protected] |
After the Senate voted to confirm 15 judicial nominees for lifetime appointments, including anti-choice Trump nominees David Porter and Mark Norris, NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue issued the following statement:
“Make no mistake, today was yet another step in the GOP’s takeover of our courts, stacking the deck against women and families at every level. Immediately following Kavanaugh’s confirmation and all of the energy and despair around it, this deal is especially painful. Kavanaugh’s confirmation showed that the GOP will go to any lengths to confirm anti-choice judges and are making a mockery of our judiciary. Through this deal, Democrats allowed Mitch McConnell and Republicans in Congress to fast track 15 more of Donald Trump’s nominees, including David Porter and Mark Norris, whose biased views and extreme anti-choice records indicate they will shape our country in Donald Trump’s brutal image for decades to come. Americans deserve better than deals cut at the expense of our liberty. The anti-choice GOP should be ashamed their blatant conservative court packing. Based on the incredible amount of energy we just witnessed around court appointments, the GOP should be prepared to pay the price in November.”
Breaking with congressional norms, Porter is being advanced over the strong objections of his home-state senator, Sen. Bob Casey. David Porter is a strong opponent of the Affordable Care Act, opposed the Violence Against Women Act, and endorsed anti-choice Attorney General John Ashcroft. He’s also been heavily involved in many far-right, anti-choice groups, including co-founding the Pennsylvania Judicial Network and serving as a contributor to the Center for Vision and Values.
Mark Norris has been endorsed by the Tennessee Right to Life, a well-known anti-choice group. During his time in Tennessee’s state legislature, Norris repeatedly voted for attacks on reproductive freedom and even co-sponsored a resolution to amend Tennessee’s constitution to ensure that nothing in it protects the right to abortion.
To learn more about the anti-choice records of Porter, Norris, or any of Trump’s other judicial nominees, 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.”