Press Release
Reproductive Freedom for All Condemns Trump’s Nominations of Matt Gaetz for Attorney General and Marco Rubio for Secretary of State
For Immediate Release: Wednesday, November 13, 2024
Contact: [email protected]
Reproductive Freedom for All Condemns Trump’s Nominations of Matt Gaetz for Attorney General and Marco Rubio for Secretary of State
Washington, DC — Today, President-elect Donald Trump announced his nominations of Sen. Marco Rubio as secretary of state and Rep. Matt Gaetz as attorney general. Both nominees have extensive anti-abortion records.
Reproductive Freedom for All President and CEO Mini Timmaraju released the following statement:
“Donald Trump is nominating these anti-abortion extremists because he knows they will enact his agenda of dismantling our rights and freedoms. But we won’t let them. We will hold every Trump appointment’s feet to the fire to protect reproductive freedom and stop the Trump administration from further decimating our rights.”
The U.S. Secretary of State is the president’s chief foreign affairs advisor with the power to influence policy around the globe. Rubio has an extensive record of opposing and restricting global sexual and reproductive health and rights, including longtime support of the harmful global gag rule, an anti-abortion policy that denies certain kinds of foreign aid to overseas health centers unless they agree not to use their own, non-U.S. funds for abortion services, counseling, or even to take a public position in support of reproductive freedom. The first Trump administration greatly expanded the policy to apply to any organization receiving U.S. global health assistance. Rubio has also voted in favor of effectively defunding UNFPA, the United Nations reproductive health agency.
The U.S. Attorney General leads the Department of Justice (DOJ) and makes key decisions about how to enforce federal law, including leading litigation efforts representing and defending federal agencies and federal officials. As attorney general, Gaetz will be responsible for enforcing federal laws, including those with a direct impact on reproductive and civil rights—such as the DOJ’s interpretation and enforcement of the Comstock Act and prosecuting violations of federal emergency abortion care protections.
While in Congress Rep. Matt Gaetz has had a long record of anti-abortion extremism, including voting for abortion bans and against efforts to protect the right to contraception. He has previously co-sponsored the Life at Conception Act, legislation that threatens to criminalize all abortion as well as some forms of contraception and assisted fertility treatments like IVF.
###
For over 50 years, Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly 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 everybody. Reproductive Freedom for All is powered by its more than 4 million members from every state and congressional district in the country, representing the 8 in 10 Americans who support legal abortion.