Press Release
NARAL Pro-Choice America Responds to Outcome of Texas’ U.S. Senate Race
For Immediate Release: Tuesday, November 3, 2020
Contact: [email protected]
Texas — Today, NARAL-endorsed candidate MJ Hegar narrowly lost her bid to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate.
NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue released the following statement in response:
“While we had hoped to see a different outcome in this race, NARAL Pro-Choice America and our members will never stop fighting for the 77% of Americans who believe in the legal right to abortion. There’s no question that Sen. John Cornyn’s record on reproductive freedom is wildly out of touch with the views of the vast majority of Americans. We are proud to have stood with MJ Hegar as she gave Cornyn a run for his money in this tight race.”
NARAL Pro-Choice Texas Executive Director Aimee Arrambide said:
“NARAL Pro-Choice Texas applauds MJ Hegar for championing reproductive freedom and standing strong against anti-choice Republican Sen. John Cornyn. While we are disappointed with the outcome of this election, NARAL and our members across Texas members are committed to continuing the fight against Cornyn’s relentless attempts to dismantle our reproductive freedom.”
In the 2020 election cycle, NARAL Pro-Choice America ran its largest-ever electoral program designed to reach, persuade, and mobilize key voters in target states across the country who are motivated by Trump and Republicans’ unyielding attacks on reproductive freedom.
Republican Senator John Cornyn has supported extreme bills to ban abortion and defund Planned Parenthood, earning him a 0% score from NARAL in the Congressional Record on Choice. Not only did Cornyn vote to illegitimately confirm Amy Barrett to the Supreme Court, he helped Trump to stack the federal judiciary with dozens of judges hostile to Roe v. Wade and determined to gut or overturn the constitutional right to abortion.
Texas has some of the most severe restrictions on abortion in the United States, including forcing delays before a person can receive abortion care and subjecting patients to mandatory biased counseling. These restrictions disproportionately harm BIPOC, low-income, and rural communities, and are part of a coordinated effort by the Radical Right to maintain white patriarchal control at all costs.
Read more about NARAL’s endorsed candidates here.
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For over 50 years, NARAL Pro-Choice America and its network of state affiliates and chapters have fought to protect and advance reproductive freedom—including access to abortion, contraception, and paid family leave—for every body. NARAL is powered by its more than 2.5 million members from every state and congressional district in the country, representing the 7 in 10 Americans who believe every person should have the freedom to make the best decision for themselves about if, when, and how to raise a family.