Press Release Michigan
Press Release
NARAL Pro-Choice America Celebrates the Confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court
For Immediate Release: Thursday, April 7, 2022
Contact: [email protected]
NARAL Pro-Choice America Celebrates the Confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court
Washington, DC — Today, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
NARAL Pro-Choice America President Mini Timmaraju released the following statement in response:
“We are ecstatic that Judge Jackson has now been confirmed to the Supreme Court in this historic confirmation vote. We are confident she will be a pillar for justice, equity, and freedom in the years to come. Judge Jackson brings decades of experience to the Court and a demonstrated record of defending and upholding our constitutional rights and fundamental freedoms—including reproductive freedom. Now more than ever, we need justices like Judge Jackson who are committed to protecting equal justice for everybody. We applaud the Senators who voted to confirm her to our nation’s highest court.”
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is an experienced, distinguished, and highly-qualified jurist and attorney who spent much of her career working to achieve civil rights and justice. She will be the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court. NARAL was proud to support Judge Jackson and our members came out in force urging their Senators to swiftly confirm her. NARAL 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.
Her 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. Upholding Mississippi’s ban will end Roe’s protections. While Judge Jackson’s confirmation will not impact the outcome of this case, she 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 if Roe falls. The consequences of overturning Roe would be devastating for pregnant people and families, and it will send shockwaves to all corners of the country.
The people hurt most by attacks on abortion access are those who 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.