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Press Release
NARAL Pro-Choice America Condemns Senate’s Confirmation of Two Anti-Choice Judicial Nominees
For Immediate Release: September 17, 2020
Contact: [email protected]
Trump nominees from Illinois, Stephen McGlynn and David Dugan, are openly hostile to reproductive freedom
Washington, DC — Today, the Senate voted to confirm two anti-choice nominees to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, Judges Stephen McGlynn and David Dugan. NARAL strongly opposed the confirmation of both of these nominees for their open hostility toward reproductive freedom. The Senate voted 55 to 41 to confirm both McGlynn and Dugan to lifetime positions on the federal bench.
NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue released the following statement in response:
“Donald Trump’s nomination of Stephen McGlynn and David Dugan to the federal judiciary is another step in the Radical Right’s decades-long effort to take over the courts and roll back reproductive freedom. Both of these judges pose an imminent threat to the fundamental freedoms we hold dear. NARAL applauds the senators, including Senator Duckworth, who voted no on these nominees. Today’s votes make more clear than ever how critical it is to flip the Senate and halt Mitch McConnell’s hijacking of the courts with right-wing extremists. Reproductive freedom is on the line.”
Both of these extreme nominees were voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on July 30th in a near party-line vote. All Democrats on the Committee voted against advancing these nominees, with the exception of Sen. Durbin. On the Senate floor today, both anti-choice nominees were confirmed by near party-line votes, with the exception of Sens. Durbin, Murphy, and Manchin who supported McGlynn and Sens. Durbin, Jones, and Manchin who supported Dugan. NARAL will factor the floor votes into its scores for Senators in the annual NARAL Congressional Record on Choice.
David Dugan is a longtime opponent of reproductive freedom. In response to an Illinois Right to Life judicial candidate survey, Dugan made his extreme hostility to reproductive freedom clear. He stated that he believes “life begins at conception,” has “been deeply involved in various organizations as a pro-life advocate,” supports anti-reproductive freedom laws and restrictions on abortion access, and believes the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade is “sorely misplaced.”
Multiple anti-choice groups who are dedicated to overturning Roe v. Wade endorsed or supported Stephen McGlynn when he ran to become a state court judge. In 2004, McGlynn led the drafting and development of the Illinois Republican Party platform, which doubled down on its opposition to the right to abortion and was called “the most comprehensively pro-life platform in the nation.”
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NARAL Pro-Choice America and its network of state affiliates and chapters are dedicated to protecting and expanding reproductive freedom for all. For more than 50 years, NARAL has worked to guarantee that every woman has the right to make personal decisions regarding the full range of reproductive choices, including preventing unintended pregnancy, bearing healthy children, and choosing legal abortion. Since 1969, NARAL has made history, grown to over 2.5 million members, and met the moments that have defined this fight with action, power, and freedom. In recognition of its work defending our constitutional right to choose, Fortune Magazine described NARAL as “one of the top 10 advocacy groups in America.”