Press Release |

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh puts abortion rights in peril

On Monday, President Trump followed up on his promise to nominate Supreme Court justices who will work to overturn Roe v. Wade with the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, a D.C. Circuit Judge who ruled against allowing a young immigrant woman to access abortion care and supports allowing employers to interfere with their employees’ access to birth control.

In response, Dr. Willie Parker, Board Chair of Physicians for Reproductive Health, issued the following statement:

“President Trump has been consistent and clear in stating that his Supreme Court nominees will work to destroy Roe v. Wade. The nomination of Brett Kavanaugh reinforces why the Senate must take this pressing threat to abortion rights seriously.

“As a doctor, I know that patients need access to abortion as part of comprehensive reproductive health care and is one of the safest medical procedures available. Roe is broadly supported across the country because the one in four women who have abortions, along with the people who care about them, know that this medical care is essential. For 45 years, the right to have an abortion has allowed countless women and families to make the decisions that were best for them. The Trump administration and its supporters’ goal of overturning longstanding precedent despite both medical evidence and public opinion can only be described as an extremist view.

This nominee will harm not only abortion rights, but will imperil other fundamental rights as well.

“The Supreme Court has enormous authority to affect the everyday health and well-being of us all. People of color, low-income families, young people, and LGBTQ people are particularly under threat from attacks on health care, voting rights, anti-discrimination laws, and more. The Trump administration has already enacted numerous policies restricting access to vital reproductive health services, including contraception, abortion, and maternity care, and will continue to chip away at health care access. This nominee will harm not only abortion rights, but will imperil other fundamental rights as well.

“It is critical that this process be treated with the utmost seriousness. The dangers of rushing through an unqualified candidate motivated by ideology and bias is simply too great at this moment when our basic freedoms are at stake. I urge the rejection of Judge Kavanaugh and of any nominee who will not defend all of our rights, including the constitutional right to abortion care.”

Board Chair Willie J. Parker, MD, MPH, MSc, is a reproductive justice advocate who travels as an abortion provider in Alabama and Georgia. He also was recently honored by the United Nations Office of Human Rights as one of 12 Women’s Human Rights Defenders on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the United Nations’ Fourth World Conference on Women. He is also a recipient of Planned Parenthood’s 2015 Margaret Sanger Award.

Dr. Parker joined the Physicians for Reproductive Health board in November 2007 and is the current Chair.