In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the stage has been set in the lower courts for attacks on contraception and the ability of couples to use IVF to have children.
Judges who have made radical statements and issued harmful decisions, like those featured below, cannot be trusted to rule with the best interests of the public in mind. Already, over 70 percent of Americans across the political spectrum believe that judges have too much power over our laws and regulations. This power allows rogue judges to enact policies through the courts that would never pass through other legislative means.
This is not how our democracy is meant to function–we need more fair-minded judges on the courts who will rule to protect our rights and freedoms, not eliminate them.
Contraception
Michael Truncale – Eastern District of Texas
- While running for office in 2012, and discussing protections for access to contraceptives, he stated that those protections amount to “an assault.”
Mark Norris – Western District of Tennessee
- While a state legislator, Norris voted for a resolution that stated government protections for access to contraceptives were “reminiscent of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes.”
Matthew Kacsmaryk – Northern District of Texas
- Among Kacsmaryk’s many extreme and legally dubious decisions issued since joining the federal bench, he allowed a suit to move forward that would restrict access to birth control, writing that the Title X program was in violation of the Constitution.
Stephen Clark – Eastern District of Missouri
- In a brief he filed on behalf of far-right organizations who oppose contraception, Clark championed discredited medical claims that serve as fear-mongering to discourage the use of contraceptives.
IVF
Sarah Pitlyk – Eastern District of Missouri
- In one particularly alarming argument she put forward as a lawyer, Pitlyk demonized couples facing infertility by saying they amounted to murders for using the IVF process to have children.
These are statements that show clear bias against the basic right of people to decide when and how to have children.
American law is being distorted due to activists like these on the bench. The public deserves a fair-minded judiciary, not one that seeks to force a far-right ideology on the entire country
