Senate Compromises on Judicial Nominees

Statement by PPFA Interim President Karen Pearl

"While we are relieved that checks and balances remain in place for future nominees, the compromise struck today on judicial nominees is bittersweet for women who were counting on their senators to make sure that moderate, reasonable judges head up our federal courts. The Republican leadership should never have created the showdown on filibusters that would have resulted in a crisis in our government. And women's access to reproductive health care should not have been the bargaining chip.

"On the same day that the Supreme Court accepted a case that will revisit restrictions on legal access to abortion, U.S. senators agreed to allow extremist judges one step closer to the federal courts. Planned Parenthood will continue its rigorous defense of reproductive freedom in the courts, in the Congress, and in communities across the world."

Planned Parenthood is the nation’s leading sexual and reproductive health care provider and advocate. We believe that everyone has the right to choose when or whether to have a child, and that every child should be wanted and loved. Planned Parenthood affiliates operate nearly 800 health centers nationwide, providing medical services and sexuality education for millions of women, men, and teenagers each year. We also work with allies worldwide to ensure that all women and men have the right and the means to meet their sexual and reproductive health care needs.