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Memos & Media Guidance
NARAL Pro-Choice America Denounces Sen. Steve Daines’ Vote to Illegitimately Confirm Amy Barrett to the Supreme Court
For Immediate Release: Monday, October 26, 2020
Contact: [email protected]
Amy Barrett’s confirmation process was a sham and Senate Republicans, including Sen. Daines, will be held accountable at the ballot box
Washington, DC — Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) joined 51 of his fellow Senate Republicans today in jamming through Amy Barrett’s confirmation to the Supreme Court. Barrett’s confirmation comes in spite of her record of anti-choice, anti-freedom extremism and as over 51 million Americans have already voted in the presidential election. With roughly a week left until Election Day, Republicans like Daines disregarded the will of the people, who believe that the next president should have filled the vacancy on the Court and that the Senate should prioritize much-needed COVID-19 relief instead.
NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue released the following statement in response to this illegitimate confirmation:
“This power grab by Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell is a shameful attack on our democracy. Amy Barrett’s extreme position on our fundamental rights is disqualifying. We know that they cannot be shamed, so we will see every single Republican who has played a role in this charade at the ballot box.”
NARAL Pro-Choice America National Communications Director Kristin Ford said:
“Today, Senator Daines betrayed the people of Montana by rubber-stamping the sham confirmation of Amy Barrett to the Supreme Court. Not only did Steve Daines vote to confirm Barrett mere days before Election Day, he chose to prioritize stacking the Supreme Court over providing relief to the thousands of Montanans struggling in the midst of a still-raging pandemic. But thanks to NARAL’s more than 10,000 members across Montana, come November 3rd, Steve Daines will realize the colossal mistake he has made when he is ousted from the Senate once and for all.”
Background on NARAL’s 2020 Electoral Program:
NARAL Pro-Choice America is running its largest-ever political program, knowing that the Trump administration and the president’s cronies are waging war on our fundamental rights and our democracy. NARAL is focused on flipping the Senate, expanding the reproductive freedom majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, and sending Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) to the White House. NARAL Freedom Fund recently launched new GOTV tactics in the key U.S. Senate battleground states of Arizona, Iowa, Georgia, Maine, Minnesota, Michigan, and North Carolina.
Just since Labor Day, NARAL organizers have led 79 events with a total of 1,305 volunteer shifts completed, 838,794 texts, 64,000 postcards, and more than 91,000 calls. In Georgia, Arizona, and Iowa alone, NARAL has spent $1,758,000 and reached out to over 720,000 voters through mail and texts so far this cycle.
Amy Barrett’s Hostility Towards Reproductive Freedom:
Though Republicans politicians and Amy Barret herself have played coy about where she stands on reproductive freedom, the truth couldn’t be more clear:
- Barrett has suggested that Roe v. Wade is an “erroneous decision.” She also signed onto an ad calling the landmark ruling “barbaric” and failed to disclose it in the documents submitted to the Senate ahead of her confirmation hearing. Another anti-choice ad Barrett signed onto called “for the unborn to be protected in law.”
- She refused to answer questions about whether states could make seeking abortion care a felony if Roe v. Wade is overturned or punish people seeking abortion care with the death penalty. She also refused to answer whether states could prosecute people for using contraception if Roe is overturned.
- Barrett has aligned with the most extreme elements of the anti-choice movement, sided with states trying to restrict abortion access, and joined anti-choice groups in voicing opposition to the Affordable Care Act’s birth control benefit. She’s even connected to a group that calls for criminalizing abortion providers and common aspects of in vitro fertilization.
- During her confirmation hearing, Barrett refused to say whether she believes Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided and declined to call Roe v. Wade “super-precedent,” or settled law. She also refused to give her position on Griswold v. Connecticut, a landmark Supreme Court ruling on the right to use birth control.
Related Resources:
- Memo: Republican Politicians Will Pay a Political Price with Suburban Women Voters for their Anti-Choice Extremism
- Fact Sheet: GOP Gaslighting on the Supreme Court
- Memo: What Republicans Really Mean When They Talk About “Religious Freedom”
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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.