September 23, 2020
To: Interested Parties
From: NARAL Pro-Choice America
Re: Don’t get caught up in the “who.” Trump’s next SCOTUS nominee will threaten reproductive freedom for generations if confirmed.
As speculation swirls around who Trump will name in the coming days, one fact is paramount to remember: No matter who the nominee is, they will be hostile to reproductive freedom and Roe v. Wade.
Trump says that a commitment to gutting or overturning Roe is a litmus test for his judicial nominees. (And no, Trump nominating a woman does not change that.)
In 2016, Trump campaigned on his promise to only nominate judges who would work to overturn Roe v. Wade. He delivered on that promise by nominating Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to the Court, tipping its balance to an anti-choice, anti-freedom majority and paying back his debt to the ideological extremists he has relied on throughout his presidency and bid for reelection.
Trump might think that nominating a woman will help spare him some criticism and help assuage the fears of voters, particularly suburban women. But don’t be fooled by this red herring. The women on Trump’s short list — from Amy Coney Barrett to Barbara Lagoa — exemplify an antipathy toward reproductive freedom and gender equity. Whether or not they have long and documented track records, remember: they meet Trump’s anti-choice litmus test.
Right-wing forces have executed a decades-long scheme to take over the courts, and see hostility toward Roe as a proxy for opposing broader social progress.
Every one of Trump’s possible Supreme Court nominees will be beholden to the anti-choice movement. Radical Right forces, including the Federalist Society, have spent decades operating a coordinated campaign to take over the courts, systematically laying the groundwork to halt progress, end Roe, and push ahead their agenda of power and control.
If Trump gets to install a third Supreme Court justice, the anti-choice movement’s goal of ending legal abortion will be within ever closer reach. But it doesn’t stop there: The Radical Right’s quest for power and control, blocking of economic and social justice, will proceed full steam ahead.
There’s simply no question that a Trump supermajority on the Court would be catastrophic for people’s fundamental rights and freedoms in this country.
Republicans are saying the quiet part loud: Explicit opposition to Roe v. Wade is non-negotiable.
Republican Senator Josh Hawley (MO) has recently made clear that he plans to leverage his power as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee to only confirm a nominee who has “explicitly acknowledged that Roe v. Wade is wrongly decided.”
In a similar vein, after Trump released his Supreme Court shortlist, several Republicans also doubled down, saying “It's time for Roe v. Wade to go.”
Amid a global pandemic, Senate Republicans have demonstrated that their priority is confirming Trump’s judicial nominees. Mitch McConnell said he would “leave no vacancy behind” and that “the pandemic will not prevent us from achieving that goal.”
Support for reproductive freedom and Roe v. Wade is a recipe for victory in November. And the stakes just got even higher.
Trump, Mitch McConnell, and Senate Republicans are maneuvering to install another Trump ideologue to the Court, threatening reproductive freedom in this country when it is already under unprecedented attack. But they are doing this against a stark backdrop: Support for Roe and abortion access is soaring in popularity with the American public — 77% of Americans support the legal right to abortion and do not want to see Roe overturned.
With voting already underway, there should be no question that it should be left to the American people to decide who gets to nominate the next Supreme Court justice.