This week, The 19th reported on reproductive rights groups retracting their support for Kyrsten Sinema due to her ever-worsening record to protect abortion rights.
After Sinema refused to give up the filibuster last summer to codify Roe v. Wade, groups like NARAL, Emily’s List, and Planned Parenthood retracted their support. Sinema’s voting record also includes confirmations for 95 of Donald Trump’s right-wing judges, including some with extreme records on abortion rights. Stephen Robinson reports more on Sinema’s bad abortion advocate act in Wonkette.
“For two years, Kyrsten Sinema voted to confirm Donald Trump’s extreme, anti-choice nominees to the federal bench, and when President Biden took office, she stood in the way of codifying Roe v. Wade, so it’s no wonder pro-choice groups are walking away,” said Sacha Haworth, spokesperson for the Replace Sinema PAC. “Actions speak louder than words, and until she gives up protecting an arcane relic of the Senate, Sinema has no right to call herself a champion of women’s reproductive rights.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Ruben Gallego has publicly stated he will vote to end the filibuster and enshrine abortion rights into law.
Excerpts below:
Wonkette: Kyrsten Sinema, Staunch Champion Of Abortion Rights, Except For All The Ways She’s Not!
Stephen Robinson // June 7, 2023
When Kyrsten Sinema won the Democratic primary nomination for Senate in 2018, she received the full endorsement from Planned Parenthood Action Fund.
[…] Cut to five years later: Sinema’s up for re-election in 2024 and almost every major abortion rights group has severed ties with her. Much has changed since 2018 — including Sinema’s party affiliation. However Sinema’s position on abortion has mostly remained the same, and that’s the whole problem.
[…] Sinema insists she’s “always supported women’s access to health care,” but she also voted to confirm 95 of Donald Trump’s right-wing zealot anti-abortion judges, including Michael Liburdi who now sits on the US District Court of Arizona.
Given her record and overall fecklessness on abortion rights, it’s not a shock that Emily’s List, NARAL, and Planned Parenthood Federation of America are done with Sinema. “Given our endorsement criteria, Sen. Sinema is ineligible for our support,” said Ryan Sitzlein, senior national political director at NARAL. These groups spent a combined $3 million to help elect Sinema in 2018, and maybe Sinema assumes her hedge fund friends can make up the difference. However, PACs can’t vote for her. She’ll need active support from the very people she’s let down or outright abandoned.
19th: Why top abortion rights groups could sit out Arizona’s key 2024 Senate race
Grace Pannetta // June 5, 2023
Sinema’s refusal to support changes to the Senate filibuster rules, which require a three-fifths majority to advance and pass most legislation, contributed to the demise of a major Democratic voting rights bill — and cost her the support of abortion-focused groups who see democracy reform as intrinsically connected to reproductive rights. Emily’s List, which backs Democratic women supportive of abortion, will stay out of the race.
“One of the things that we feel as advocates, and also as voters, is that we were used as political pawns to get her elected to get her into this office,” said Liz Luna, political and policy director at Rural Arizona Action, an advocacy and voter engagement group. “And then she kind of just left us on this island where we haven’t been able to see tangible results from her and communicate with her.”
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