Go to Content Go to Navigation Go to Navigation Go to Site Search Homepage

Planned Parenthood calls on the full Senate to reject Michael Liburdi’s nomination 

One in 10 judges in lifetime seats are now Trump appointees

WASHINGTON — Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance another of Trump’s anti-abortion nominees, Michael Liburdi, for the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona. The nomination passed out of committee in a party-line vote. Liburdi has defined his political career with overt hostility to reproductive health care. He led the Arizona Right to Life Political Action Committee, which supports politicians with anti-abortion records. He then served in Arizona Governor Doug Ducey’s campaigns and administration, which has forced through some of the most extreme restrictions on abortion in the country. Liburdi has also endorsed the unpopular Supreme Court decision Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, which permits certain employers to deny their employees’ access to birth control. The decision applied to more than half of all U.S. workers.

Statement from Dana Singiser, Senior Vice President for Policy, Campaigns and Advocacy, Planned Parenthood Action Fund:

In nominating Michael Liburdi, the Trump-Pence administration is continuing to fill our courts with biased judges who will take away our health and rights every chance they get. Liburdi’s confirmation would pose great harm to Arizonans. The courts have been a critical backstop to dangerous policies pushed by Arizona politicians, including efforts to block care at Planned Parenthood and a law forcing doctors to tell their patients medically inaccurate and misleading information. People look to the courts to protect their health and rights, not take them away — as Liburdi’s records suggests he would do. We call on the Senate to oppose Liburdi’s confirmation.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has advanced the confirmation of many of Trump’s extreme nominees that now, nearly one in ten judges in lifetime federal seats are Trump appointees and many of them hold anti-reproductive health records.

BACKGROUND ON MICHAEL LIBURDI:

In Arizona, Liburdi has defined his career by supporting both the politicians and policies aimed at taking away access to reproductive health care, including safe, legal abortion.

  • As chairman of the extreme Arizona Right to Life Political Action Committee (PAC) from 2010-2014, Michael Liburdi endorsed and funded Arizona politicians with anti-abortion records.
  • The Arizona Right to Life PAC endorsed Governor Doug Ducey in 2014, and Liburdi worked on Ducey’s gubernatorial campaigns in 2014 and 2018. Ducey ran on an anti-abortion platform and has signed into law medically unnecessary restrictions during every legislative session.
  • Liburdi served as Governor Ducey’s general counsel from 2015-2018, and during that time Ducey signed laws restricting access to medication abortion in Arizona against the advice of the medical community. One law Ducey signed would have effectively forced people to make four trips to a health center for medication abortion. Another law, which was blocked by the courts, would have required doctors to tell patients medically inaccurate and misleading information that could be harmful to their health.
  • Liburdi has belittled the impact of the landmark Hobby Lobby decision, which allowed certain employers to deny their employees’ access to birth control. 

### 

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, advocacy and electoral activity, including grassroots organizing, legislative advocacy, and voter education.

We and our third partners use cookies and other tools to collect, store, monitor, and analyze information about your interaction with our site to improve performance, analyze your use of our sites and assist in our marketing efforts. You may opt out of the use of these cookies and other tools at any time by visiting Cookie Settings. By clicking “Allow All Cookies” you consent to our collection and use of such data, and our Terms of Use. For more information, see our Privacy Notice.

Cookie Settings

We, and our third-party partners, use cookies, pixels, and other tracking technologies to collect, store, monitor, and process certain information about you when you access and use our services, read our emails, or otherwise engage with us. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences, or your device. We use that information to make the site work, analyze performance and traffic on our website, to provide a more personalized web experience, and assist in our marketing efforts. We also share information with our social media, advertising, and analytics partners. You can change your default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our Necessary Cookies as they are deployed to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information, please see our Privacy Notice.

Marketing

On

We use online advertising to promote our mission and help constituents find our services. Marketing pixels help us measure the success of our campaigns.

User Feedback and Session Replay

On

We use qualitative data from LogRocket, UserZoom, Hotjar and AB Tasty to learn about your user experience and improve our products and services. LogRocket allows us to view session replays.