Team,
Fifty years ago today, the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Roe v. Wade secured a woman’s right to reproductive health care across the United States.
Generations of women were guaranteed the freedom to set the course of their own lives. Not anymore.
Republicans have worked to send women’s rights backwards ever since that step forward 50 years ago. And last year, a Supreme Court captured by far-right special interests finally handed them their long-sought prize: overturning Roe.
The decision from Republican justices on the Court discarded longstanding precedent. It opened the floodgates for right-wing legislatures, attorneys general, and governors across the country to further restrict and end access to abortion care. Women in this country have fewer rights today than their mothers did.
It could not be more urgent that we pass federal legislation restoring and protecting reproductive rights – and I will not let up that fight. If you’re with me, please, chip in $5 now.
The reality is that the Supreme Court’s decision to end the right to abortion didn’t come out of the blue.
Through spending in confirmation battles, lobbying the Court through briefs, and even paying for face time with justices, conservative activists and high-dollar donors have used money and influence to push their anti-abortion agenda with the Supreme Court for many years.
It appears to have paid off for them. But that isn’t how our democracy is supposed to work. We need more transparency and accountability around the Supreme Court, and we need to shine a light on the dark money that has been sloshing around judicial confirmation battles.
Millions of dollars from big anonymous donors kept the confirmations of these Republican justices on track, even when they hit political headwinds. And we have no idea who those donors were or what their interest was in the Court. It’s wrong that the American people have no way of knowing who is pulling the strings.
I am committed to the fight to restore and protect the freedom of women to set the course of their own lives, and I’m working hard to change the way the Supreme Court does business to include more transparency and accountability. If you’re with me, please – chip in right now.
In solidarity,
Sheldon Whitehouse
