[Atlanta, GA] - Statement by Monica Simpson, Executive Director of SisterSong, the national women of color Reproductive Justice collective on the Senate Judiciary's decision to send Brett Kavanaugh to the full Senate for a confirmation vote:
"Today, the United States Senate Judiciary Committee voted to send the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the full Senate for consideration. We are horrified. We are angry. And we are not letting this go down without a fight.
This is a man whose record shows a reckless disregard for the rights and health of women. Brett Kavanaugh does not support the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a program that has made great strides in closing the gaps in disparities in the ability to get the services we need to get and stay healthy. We have seen the rate of people who are uninsured drastically decrease, since the passage of the ACA. Rolling this program back would cause great harm to marginalized communities.
Kavanaugh does not support the protections for patients with pre-existing conditions. We are talking about people with diabetes or cancer or asthma being told that because they have a health condition that requires services to be able to survive that a health insurance company could reject them for coverage. This is absurd and downright dangerous.
Brett Kavanaugh thinks that employers should be able to deny health coverage for contraception and believes that Roe should be overturned. Before Roe and the ability for women to get safe, abortion care, an estimated 5,000 women died every year. As is often the case, women already living on the margins were hit hardest by the lack of access to safe services. The mortality rate for Black and Hispanic women was twelve times higher than the mortality rate for white women. When we talk about a future where a court that includes Kavanaugh overturns Roe v. Wade, we are talking about sending women back into the back alleys.
Kavanaugh is also a man who has been accused of sexual violence by several women and when questioned about this history, he answered with anger and vitriol.
All too familiar to Black women who remember watching Anita share her story, this hearing put a survivor out there to lay bare some of the worst moments of her life before a panel of men with political power who ignored her and pushed her aside with no regard to the pain and trauma she endured.
And it feels all too real and too painful for me as a survivor and for so many Black women who are not given the same space to be vulnerable or to get angry or to be heard and who know that when we share our stories we will not see justice.
Brett Kavanaugh is NOT someone who should have the power to make decisions about our bodies or influence policies that impact our safety. We will not hang our heads in defeat today. In spite of the fact that this week has been triggering and re-victimizing for far too many of us, we will keep speaking out and organizing and rallying. We will make calls to our senators and mobilize the people in our lives to make their voices heard. The full Senate could vote next week. We will rise up and keep up the fight to halt this nomination.
We believe survivors. We believe Anita and Christine and Deborah and Julie. We see and believe and support them and the many women and girls of color who feel they can't tell their stories. We will keep speaking up and tearing down the whole damn system until women's lives and bodies are respected and safe."
