Gorsuch’s Confirmation Imperils Reproductive Rights

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 7, 2017
CONTACT: Christie Petrone, [email protected], 718-594-6538

Statement by National Institute for Reproductive Health President Andrea Miller

“Neil Gorsuch’s Supreme Court confirmation is a devastating setback to the rights of women, people of color, LGBTQ folks, and low-income communities. Given Gorsuch’s prior rulings — and Trump’s commitment to appoint judges who would overturn Roe v. Wade — we must now assume that our reproductive rights are in grave danger.

“Advocates of abortion access must redouble our efforts to safeguard reproductive rights at the state and local level. At the state level, the National Institute for Reproductive Health is leading this effort in places like New York, where it is working to pass the Reproductive Health Act, which would enshrine in New York state law the right to choose abortion as originally recognized in Roe v. Wade, among other protections.

“Public support for Roe is at nearly 70 percent, as high as it has been in two decades — and an even higher percentage of the population wants abortion to be supportive, respectful, affordable, and available in a woman’s community without shame or pressure. An entire generation has come of age never knowing a time when their access to abortion, should they ever need it, was not protected by the Supreme Court. It’s incumbent on the Supreme Court to continue to uphold the precedent set in Roe v. Wade and reaffirmed many times, regardless of the political agenda of the party in power.”

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The National Institute for Reproductive Health works across the country to increase access to reproductive health care by changing public policy, galvanizing public support, and normalizing women’s decisions to have abortions and use contraception.