Florida NOW

Statement by NOW President Toni Van Pelt:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Senate took another step today to aid and abet Donald Trump’s radical anti-abortion agenda by voting to confirm Wendy Vitter to a lifetime position on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Trump doesn’t believe in the separation of powers or care about the rule of law.   He only wants to populate the government and the courts with sycophants and ideologues who will do his bidding, shred the Constitution and reverse decades of protections for women’s health.

Wendy Vitter has been one of the extremist anti-choice lobby’s most vocal and ambitious advocates—seeking to not only repeal Roe v. Wade but to demonize a woman’s fundamental human right to determine her reproductive life.”

While moderating an anti-abortion panel in 2013, Vitter promoted the junk science theory that abortion is linked to breast cancer and oral contraceptives can cause women to be assaulted and murdered.  She spoke at a rally protesting Planned Parenthood and accused the organization of “killing over 150,000 females a year.”

As General Counsel to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans, Wendy Vitter has a long record of extreme hostility to reproductive freedom, and now she will be able to impose that radical agenda on court decisions that will cause irreparable harm to women.

NOW calls on the Senate to take back the blank check it gave to Donald Trump when it comes to judicial nominations, and stop confirming narrow-minded extremists like Wendy Vitter.

Contact

Kimberly Hayes, Press Secretary, press@now.org, 202-570-4745

Statement by NOW President Toni Van Pelt:

Washington, D.C. — The dangerous bill moving through Alabama’s legislature to ban abortion is a direct violation of Roe vs. Wade. This unconstitutional measure would send women in the state back to the dark days of policymakers having control over their bodies, health, and lives.

NOW firmly believes that women have the constitutional right to safe, legal, affordable and accessible abortion care and we strongly oppose this bill and the other egregious pieces of legislation that extremist lawmakers are trying to pass in what they claim is an attempt to force the Supreme Court to overturn Roe. This is a transparent effort to drum up political support for anti-abortion candidates in upcoming elections and serves as a direct threat to women’s health, autonomy, and pursuit of happiness. We will not let it stand.

Contact

Kimberly Hayes, Press Secretary, press@now.org, 202-570-4745

Statement by NOW President Toni Van Pelt:

WASHINGTON — A new bill out of the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations would restore vital funding and protections for reproductive health and rights across the world and would finally repeal the devastating global gag rule, which President Trump has repeatedly expanded.

The FY20 State, Foreign Operations bill advanced through the House subcommittee today and is expected to go to the full Appropriations committee next week. The National Organization for Women strongly supports the proposed bill and urges the full committee to vote it through to the House floor.

One of the first actions of the Trump-Pence administration was to expand the “global gag rule,” which prohibits international health care providers from giving women truthful information about their reproductive choices. And ever since the administration has continued to decimate international family planning programs, including slashing funding to the United Nations Population Fund, which provides lifesaving resources to millions of women and girls around the world.

This appropriations bill includes the Global HER Act to repeal the global gag rule and rectifies these wrongs by restoring desperately-needed dollars to international reproductive health care programs. We urge the House to keep the momentum moving forward on this important bill.

Contact

press@now.org , 202-570-4745