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Press Release
NARAL Pro-Choice America Endorses Carolyn Bourdeaux for Congress
For Immediate Release: July 14, 2020
Contact: [email protected]
Healthcare Champion and Candidate for Georgia’s 7th Congressional District Earns Endorsement from Nation’s Leading Pro-Choice Advocacy Group
NARAL Pro-Choice America today announced its endorsement of Carolyn Bourdeaux in her campaign to represent Georgia’s 7th Congressional District. Bourdeaux is a public policy expert who is now seeking to flip the seat being vacated by anti-choice, anti-freedom Republican Rep. Rob Woodall. Bourdeaux will face off against anti-choice Republican Rich McCormick in November.
The endorsement comes on the heels of yesterday’s District Court ruling in SisterSong v. Kemp, which struck down Georgia’s extreme ban on abortion (HB 481) as unconstitutional. The 2019 law, which had been blocked from going into effect while awaiting a ruling, would have made abortion illegal before many people even know they’re pregnant, in addition to criminalizing doctors.
“NARAL is proud to endorse Carolyn Bourdeaux, whose leadership in Congress will be critical for fighting back against Republicans’ relentless attacks on reproductive freedom,” said Ilyse Hogue, President of NARAL Pro-Choice America. “Georgia already faces some of the worst restrictions on reproductive freedom, and Georgians deserve someone who will fight for them and stand up for the 77% of Americans who support legal access to abortion. Unlike her reckless anti-choice opponent Rich McCormick, Carolyn is a champion who will safeguard their fundamental freedom to make personal decisions about pregnancy, free from political interference.”
“For too long, our state has been represented by politicians advancing an extreme agenda antithetical to the values of the majority of Georgians who support reproductive freedom,” said NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia Director Laura Simmons. “In 2018, Carolyn would have won this seat were it not for systematic disenfranchisement of Georgia voters at the hands of anti-freedom lawmakers with an ideological agenda. However, the tides are turning in Georgia, and in 2020 we have a real chance to elect representatives that the people of Georgia truly deserve. NARAL and our 47,000 members in Georgia are committed to doing whatever it takes to send Carolyn Bourdeaux to Congress.”
“Unlike my opponent Rich McCormick, I strongly support a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions, including the right to choose. Here in Georgia we’ve seen draconian attacks on women’s health care and it’s putting Georgia women at risk,” said Bourdeaux. “I will stand strong against these attacks in Congress and I’m glad to have the support of organizations like NARAL who have been advocating for women’s health care freedom for decades.”
Bourdeaux previously ran to represent Georgia’s 7th District in 2018, and came within 433 votes of flipping the seat (making it the closest U.S. House race of 2018), in an election infamously mired with voter suppression.
Despite the fact that over half of Georgians live in counties with no clinics providing abortion care, anti-choice politicians in Georgia continue to attack reproductive freedom and access to abortion. This was made clear in 2019 when Governor Brian Kemp and anti-choice lawmakers in the state legislature narrowly forced a near-total abortion ban (HB 481) into law.
While HB 481 has been permanently enjoined by a federal judge, Georgia still has some of the most severe restrictions on abortion in the United States, including bans on abortion throughout pregnancy, forcing a woman to wait 24 hours before she can receive abortion care, and subjecting women to mandatory biased counseling.
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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.”