Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards was spotted entering the White House several hours prior to a Women’s History Month reception following President Barack Obama’s announcement of his nominee to the Supreme Court, Judge Merrick Garland of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Following Obama’s announcement of the nomination, Planned Parenthood Action Fund released a statement by Richards:
Judge Garland is an intelligent, highly accomplished judge who has secured bipartisan support in his previous appointments. Now that the President has upheld his constitutional duty, it is time for the Senate to uphold theirs. The American people deserve a full court and a justice appointed by the President they elected for four years — not three. It is time for the Senate to do their job and give Judge Garland a fair hearing and up or down vote.”
LifeNews reports that a “reporter or Politico took a photo of Richards entering the West Wing.”
Senior White House reporter for Politico Edward-Isaac Dovere tweeted the following:
Obama praised Richards and several other women at the reception, referring to them as “real life superheroes,” reports The Blaze. He said Richards was “making sure women’s health care is on the front burner.”
Republican 2016 candidate Sen. Ted Cruz said in a statement about the nomination that Garland is “exactly the type of Supreme Court nominee you get when you make deals in Washington D.C. A so-called ‘moderate’ Democrat nominee is precisely the kind of deal that Donald Trump has told us he would make…”
Cruz added that if Garland were confirmed by the Senate, “He would side predictably with President Obama on critical issues such as undermining the Second Amendment, legalizing partial-birth abortions, and propping up overreaching bureaucratic agencies like the EPA and the IRS.”
National pro-life leaders called upon the Senate to maintain its resolution to hold off on confirming an Obama nominee.
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, observed that Garland has no history of abortion rulings.
“But just look at who appointed him: the most pro-abortion president in our nation’s history,” she asserted. “For that reason alone, the Senate should halt his nomination until the next president is elected, and hopefully appoint a judge with a record of pro-life rulings.”
“Judge Garland is far from being a consensus nominee and would be an incredibly different jurist than Justice Scalia,” said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins. “In fact, he was opposed by almost a quarter of the Senators who voted on his nomination to the D.C. Circuit Court in 1997, and some of Judge Garland’s most recent opinions and dissents raises serious questions about his ability to serve as a constitutionalist.”
“During this presidential election year, there is not time to provide any nominee the thorough review necessary to adequately consider a person’s appointment to the Supreme Court,” Perkins added. “In fact, it has been almost a century and a half since a Supreme Court vacancy occurred and was filled in an election year when the White House and Senate were controlled by different parties.”
“I strongly urge the members of the Judiciary Committee to hold fast to their promise, for the sake of the future of our country and the future of our posterity,” said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue. “The Senate Republican leadership cannot afford to break this important promise to their conservative, pro-life base, if they expect us to vote for any of them ever again.”
Susan B. Anthony List says it plans to launch Protect the Court, a national grassroots mobilization campaign to urge the U.S. Senate to hold off on the confirmation process.
The organization’s president, Marjorie Dannenfelser, observes that any nominee of pro-abortion Obama “will join the voting bloc on the Court that consistently upholds abortion-on-demand.”
“The President should not be permitted one last opportunity to stack the Court with pro-abortion Justices,” she said. “We thank Leader McConnell and Senator Grassley for standing firm in their resolution to hold the confirmation process until we have a new president.”
Fr. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, said the American people must be allowed to speak in this year’s elections before the nation is saddled with another Obama nominee.
“We at Priests for Life are more aware than usual of the impact of the Supreme Court, as our religious liberty case, Priests for Life vs. HHS, which challenges the HHS mandate, goes into oral argument at the Supreme Court this coming Wednesday,” Pavone said.
“Senate Majority Leader McConnell and Judiciary Committee Chairman Grassley have announced that the U.S. Senate will not take any action on any nominee President Obama puts forward for the high court,” he added. “I am confident that they will remain firm in their commitment. I call on all Americans to urge their Senators to do the same.”
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