Extreme and Unfit to Judge: Anti-Abortion Activist Sarah Pitlyk Should Not Be Confirmed

The Trump-Pence administration has confirmed more than 150 judges to lifetime seats — that’s faster than any modern administration. One hundred fifty, you read that right. These judges could rule on cases that affect our health, rights, and communities for generations to come. And one of the latest nominees who’s one of the most hostile toward our reproductive rights yet? Sarah Pitlyk.

Sarah Pitlyk Spent Her Career Determined to Undermine Our Rights

Sarah Pitlyk is a judicial nominee to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri who’s spent her career trying to roll back our sexual and reproductive health and rights. 

Pitlyk is well-known in anti-abortion circles for litigating cases directly opposing abortion rights. She defended Iowa’s unconstitutional 6-week abortion ban and has fought against a local St. Louis ordinance that barred discrimination based on “reproductive health decisions,” such as having an abortion or using birth control. 

She’s even directed her anti-abortion ideology and extremism against Planned Parenthood. She defended David Daleiden — an anti-abortion operative who advanced the 2015 video smear campaign against Planned Parenthood. (By the way, those fake, harmful videos have since been debunked)! Pitlyk has also backed the Trump administration’s gag rule, which forced Planned Parenthood out of the Title X program and is now jeopardizing care for millions of people across the country. 

And while Pitlyk has made clear she’s against abortion, she’s also fought against birth control access and has gone on the record against alternative reproductive options, such as surrogacy and in vitro fertilization, that an increasing number of people use when facing challenges to getting pregnant.

Bottom line: her extremely biased views have made clear she can’t be trusted to rule on our reproductive health and rights.

What Her Confirmation Could Mean to Missourians

As a lifetime appointee to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, Pitlyk can help shape the law. We’ve already seen hundreds of anti-abortion and anti-reproductive healthcare bills introduced in state legislatures, and some signed into law by governors. Simultaneously, Trump and the Senate Majority are packing our courts with anti-abortion and anti-reproductive healthcare judges. Think this is a coincidence?

Unfortunately not. Case in point: This year, abortion access could have been decimated in Missouri due to relentless attacks on abortion access. After Missouri Gov. Mike Parson signed an eight-week abortion ban into law, Planned Parenthood challenged the law in court and now the case is headed to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes four Trump-nominated and confirmed judges. With the attack on abortion and reproductive healthcare on the rise, we know similar cases regarding our reproductive health and rights could come before Pitlyk if she is confirmed.

In short, once confirmed by Senate leadership, Trump’s judicial nominees like Sarah Pitlyk are intentionally set up to rule on cases that could affect reproductive rights for DECADES to come. 

What You Can Do to Stop Her Confirmation

This isn’t the first time the Trump-Pence administration has nominated an unqualified extremist  for a judgeship, but even for them, Sarah Pitlyk is an outrageously inappropriate choice. You know it’s bad when the bipartisan American Bar Association unanimously deems a nominee ‘not qualified.’ An entire branch of government is being remade before our eyes, and we need to do everything we can to stop that from happening. They may think that no one is paying attention to federal judgeship nominees, and that they can push through extreme individuals like Pitlyk without objection — but they’re wrong.