Senate Considers Cornelia T.L. PIlliard for U.S. Court of Appeals for District of Columbia

PRESS RELEASE

Senate Considers Cornelia T.L. PIlliard for U.S. Court of Appeals for District of Columbia

WASHINGTON, D.C. –– Today the Senate considered the nomination of Cornelia T.L. Pilliard for U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and voted against moving her nomination forward. Penny Nance, President and CEO of Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee, responds in the brief statement below:

“Concerned Women for America is pleased with the action of the Senate.Simply put, Pilliard stands against everything Concerned Women for America(CWA) and our friends believe. She has even attacked CWA for supporting motherhood. This particular nominee’s views are especially troubling for women of faith who CWA represents.

“In an eye-opening piece, Our Other Reproductive Choices:Equality in Sex Education, Contraceptive Access, and Work-Family, Pilliard states:

‘CWA, a powerful abstinence-only proponent, consistently expresses support for”motherhood.” CWA’s advocacy exploits a useful ambiguity in the meaning of that word, referring both to the unassailable fact that women who bear children are mothers and to the traditional, sex-based assignment of women to the social role of primary family caregiver – a role that CWA particularly champions.’

“We have been attacked for many things, but an attack such as this, for our support of mothers, is by far one of the most radical. Pilliard is a radical feminist whose extreme views are well outside the mainstream. She does not deserve a lifetime appointment to one of the nation’s most prestigious courts.

“Pillard’s disdain for conservative women is palpable. In her writings, she argues that abortion rights are what free women from the ‘conscription into maternity’.

“We believe mothers are to be supported and celebrated. She hates our support of abstinence education and has actually said abstinence education programs are unconstitutional. Such views prompted Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah to say, ‘[Pillard’s] ideology shapes and motivates how she sees both the law and the facts in such cases.’

“When a judge is driven by personal ideology to the point where that view colors not only law but facts,you know you have found an activist of the worst kind. She should never be confirmed.”

If you would like an interview with Penny Nance or a Concerned Women for America spokesperson, please contact Alison Howard at ahoward@cwfa.org or 202-266-4816.

Concerned Women for America is the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization with 500,000 participating members across the country, over 450 Prayer/Action Chapters and Home Teams, 600 trained leaders and over 30 years of service to our nation.

# # #