A major abortion-rights group is launching a campaign against one of President Obama’s judicial nominees, one who has already angered Democrats on Capitol Hill.
NARAL Pro-Choice America sent an email out Wednesday to supporters asking them to help “Stop Michael Boggs’ Confirmation.”
{mosads}Obama nominated Boggs to Georgia’s federal bench in December. A number of black lawmakers on Capitol Hill have blasted Obama over this and other nominations.
“President Obama has asked the Senate to confirm a judicial nominee who tried to channel funds to anti-choice crisis pregnancy centers and make a parental consent law even more extreme,” the NARAL email says, referring to Boggs.
An automatic email option is pasted below NARAL’s campaign that allows supporters to call on senators to vote against Boggs’s confirmation.
“We’re disappointed that pro-choice President Obama nominated someone who doesn’t share our pro-choice values. We agree with the president on a lot of things, but not this pick,” NARAL says.
Black lawmakers in Georgia’s congressional delegation have been upset with Obama’s selection because Boggs had previously voted as a state legislator to keep the state’s 1956 state flag, which displays a Confederate battle emblem.
Georgia Rep. David Scott (D) has been among the most outspoken lawmakers opposing Obama’s nominees. While the Confederate flag issue has been a top concern, he also pointed to Boggs’s stance on women’s issues.
“Boggs is against women’s reproductive rights,” Scott recently told The Hill.
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus, in fact, met with Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett last week to voice their concerns over the nomination.
CBC members have also been outraged about the nomination of Mark Cohen to the Georgia court. He defended the state’s voter ID law in court, but did so for the state’s Democratic attorney general.
Obama also nominated only one black nominee to Georgia’s bench, a Republican woman.
— Mike Lillis contributed.