Press Release
NARAL Pro-Choice America Releases Statement Ahead of Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on the Confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson
For Immediate Release: Monday, March 21, 2022
Contact: [email protected]
Washington, DC — Today, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee will begin a hearing on the confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to serve as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Judge Jackson was nominated by President Joe Biden to fill Justice Stephen Breyer’s seat following his retirement at the end of this term. Judge Jackson is the first Black woman nominated to serve on the Supreme Court.
NARAL Pro-Choice America President Mini Timmaraju released the following statement ahead of the hearing:
“Judge Jackson is a tremendously qualified and historic nominee whose voice, perspective, and commitment to justice and freedom for all are much-needed on the Court. With our fundamental rights facing unprecedented threats, we need justices like Judge Jackson who will be committed to upholding reproductive freedom and equal justice for all of us. Her confirmation is an important opportunity we must seize to shape the future of the Court so we can build a better world for future generations. We urge the Senate Judiciary Committee to advance Judge Jackson’s confirmation.”
Judge Jackson is an experienced, distinguished, and highly-qualified jurist and attorney who spent much of her career as an attorney working to achieve civil rights and justice. NARAL is proud to support Judge Jackson and our members have come out in force urging their Senators to swiftly confirm her. NARAL has worked alongside partners—including the Black Women’s Leadership Collective—to combat racist and sexist disinformation campaigns launched in an attempt to derail her confirmation.
Judge Jackson’s confirmation comes at a pivotal moment in the fight for reproductive freedom. In the coming months, the anti-choice supermajority on the Supreme Court will issue a ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a case regarding Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban that directly challenges Roe v. Wade and could end the constitutional right to abortion as we know it. Upholding Mississippi’s ban will end Roe’s protections. While Judge Jackson’s confirmation will not impact the outcome of this case, her confirmation will shape the Court in the decades to come.
If the Supreme Court upholds Mississippi’s ban on abortion in the Jackson Women’s Health case, it will open the floodgates for anti-choice lawmakers to take immediate action to ban abortion. Should Roe fall, 28 states would likely take action to prohibit abortion outright. Of those, 13 states already have “trigger bans” in place, which would ban abortion automatically. The consequences of overturning Roe would be devastating, and it will send shockwaves to all corners of the country.
Even as Roe stands, the evisceration of abortion access is underway in states across the country and the impact of these attacks fall hardest on those already face barriers to accessing the care they need—including women; Black, Indigenous, and other people of color; those working to make ends meet; LGBTQ+ people; immigrants; young people; those living in rural communities; and people with disabilities.
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For over 50 years, NARAL Pro-Choice America has fought to protect and advance reproductive freedom at the federal and state levels—including access to abortion care, birth control, pregnancy and post-partum care, 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 8 in 10 Americans who support legal abortion.