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WASHINGTON D.C. - Planned Parenthood Action Fund warns that today’s Senate vote to confirm anti-women’s health opponent Leonard Steven Grasz for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit puts the rights and health care access of millions of women at risk. Grasz has been an active opponent of reproductive rights for decades, and he has a record that brings into question his ability to follow legal precedent. Grasz confirmation was approved by a vote of 50 - 48.

Steven Grasz is so extreme that he has been deemed unqualified by the American Bar Association (ABA). The ABA standing committee unanimously concluded that he was “not qualified” to serve as a federal judge and said that Grasz’s “bias and the lens through which he viewed his role as a judge colored his ability to judge fairly.” He is one of four Trump nominees the ABA has officially rated “not qualified,” an unprecedented number for any administration.

Statement from Dana Singiser, Vice President for Government Relations and Public Policy, Planned Parenthood Action Fund:

It is alarming that Senate Republican leaders are working with the Trump administration to stack the courts with judges like Steven Grasz. Grasz will push his extreme views from the bench and allow politicians to deny a woman some of the most fundamental decisions she has to make: where she gets health care and if and when she has a child.

“We are grateful to the senators, led by the formidable Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein, who have fought to block nominees like Grasz, and we urge them to continue to do everything in their power to stop these nominations. Individual rights and liberties are at the heart of who we are as a country. Anyone who would use extreme, partisan beliefs to undermine those rights should not serve on the federal bench. The health and lives of millions of women for a generation to come are at stake.

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Planned Parenthood Action Fund is an independent, nonpartisan, not-for-profit membership organization formed as the advocacy and political arm of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. The Action Fund engages in educational and electoral activity, including voter education, grassroots organizing, and legislative advocacy.

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