Florida NOW

Statement by NOW President Toni Van Pelt

By naming Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court, Donald Trump has set the table for a vote on repealing Roe v. Wade. That was the promise Trump made during the presidential campaign. In his final debate with Hillary Clinton, Trump said the Supreme Court would “automatically” overturn Roe once he became president, “because I am putting pro-life judges on the Court.”

Trump outsourced his Supreme Court nomination screening process to the radical Federalist Society, a group started during the Reagan era to move U.S. courts to the right. Its leader, right-wing activist Leonard Leo, has called abortion “a threat to human life,” and conservative activist Ed Whelan has said, “No one has been more dedicated to the enterprise of building a Supreme Court that will overturn Roe v. Wade than the Federalist Society’s Leonard Leo.”

Now, Leo, the Federalist Society and the network of anti-abortion extremists, billionaires and committees have gotten their wish. After pushing Neil Gorsuch to the top of the pile last year, they are gearing up for a repeat performance now.

We can’t let them succeed. Mitch McConnell stole a Supreme Court seat by refusing to consider Barack Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, and now Senate Republicans are at it again. We are on the threshold of the most consequential Congressional elections in modern times. Voters are going to the polls to express their views on who should be setting the agenda in Congress and whose values should be reflected on the bench. We call on the Senate to refuse to take up this nomination until the people they represent have voiced their opinions.

Contact

Dee Donavanik
press@now.org
(951) 547-1241

Statement by NOW President Toni Van Pelt:

WASHINGTON–The Supreme Court has ruled in the NIFLA v. Becerra case that fake women’s health centers can continue to lie, discriminate and deceive women who seek a full range of reproductive health care services. Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell’s hand-picked Justice, Neil Gorsuch, delivered the deciding vote against women.

So-called “crisis pregnancy” centers are political, not medical entities. They were created to promote the anti-abortion agenda of religious extremists. The California legislature found that the nearly 200 centers in the state used “intentionally deceptive advertising and counseling practices that often confuse, misinform, and even intimidate women from making fully-informed, time-sensitive decisions about critical health care.”

To counter these propaganda factories designed as clinics, California required them to post notices that free or low-cost abortion, contraception, and prenatal care are available through public programs. The Supreme Court has struck down that requirement, giving a green light to ideologues who would hijack the public health system for their own political agendas.

Donald Trump has a vision for the Supreme Court that is dangerous to women’s health. He has set the Supreme Court down an anti-abortion road that will surely lead to an attempt to repeal Roe v. Wade. We will oppose Trump’s anti-choice appointments to state and federal courts, and to the Supreme Court. Junk science and religious extremism have no place in our legal system or our politics. Women deserve the truth.

Contact

Dee Donavanik, press@now.org, (951) 547-1241

Statement by NOW President Toni Van Pelt

WASHINGTON–We celebrate Pride month in June to coincide with the annual anniversary of the June 1969 Stonewall Uprising in New York City. Stonewall is considered to be the spark that ignited the modern LGBTQIA+ activist movement, following a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a known LGBTQIA+ venue on Christopher Street in New York’s Greenwich Village.

Stonewall patrons and their supporters rose up in protest of the early-morning raid, taking to the streets and chanting “gay power.” Out of an oppressive police action, a mass movement was born. In protest against legal injustice, a new civil rights movement was energized.

Many groups over the years have been inspired by this movement, and NOW is proudly among them. We have never been content to sit back and watch events unfold around us.

We march, we organize, we take action, we push for meaningful social change.

We work with lawmakers to enact urgently needed legislation, and to block measures that take away our rights.

We strive to overcome discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in all areas, including employment, housing, public accommodations, health services, child custody and military policies.

NOW is committed to educational efforts that combat the adverse effects of homophobia, promote positive images in the media and ultimately ensure civil rights protection for all. NOW asserts the right of LGBTQIA+ people to live their lives with dignity and security, and marriage equality for all.

LGBTQIA+ people are still considered second-class citizens by powerful institutions and leaders. The Trump Administration has now refused for the past two years in a row to issue a simple declaration of support for Pride Month, although the White House has proclaimed June as Great Outdoors Month, National Ocean Month, National Homeownership Month, African-American Music Appreciation Month, and National Caribbean-American Heritage Month.

NOW is determined to stand up to the Trump Administration’s discriminatory agenda and attacks on LGBTQIA+ rights, and to work tirelessly to pass the Equality Act to ensure that sexual orientation and gender identity receive the full force of protection under our laws and in the workplace.

We celebrate Pride Month, and we also heed the call of history, which rang forth on the streets of Greenwich Village back on June 28, 1969.

Contact

Dee Donavanik, press@now.org, (951) 547-1241