One Year Since SB 8, Need for Court Expansion Has Never Been Clearer

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (September 1, 2022) — Today marks one year since the right-wing Supreme Court allowed S.B. 8, Texas’ extreme 6-week abortion ban, to take effect. In the time since, several states have introduced legislation modeled after the heinous Texas law, the Court stripped away Americans’ constitutional right to abortion by overturning Roe v. Wade, and trigger bans in 11 states have taken effect — cutting off access to abortion care for millions. In fact, as many as 1 in 3 American women have lost abortion access since the Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

In response, Take Back the Court released the following statement on behalf of its executive director, Sarah Lipton-Lubet:

“As millions of Americans reel from the loss of their constitutional right to abortion this summer, today marks an entire year since the stolen Supreme Court ripped this right away from Texans. The horrors and suffering we’ve seen since are impossible to overstate. Now, pregnant people are facing surveillance by their neighbors, investigation by law enforcement, and even jail time. Right-wing state lawmakers are going after their own constituents with new laws intended to make it impossible to access abortion care. And all of it is in service of the extreme, regressive right-wing agenda the Supreme Court is working to impose on the American public against our will.

“This devastation won’t end unless we expand and rebalance the right-wing Court. Leaders in Congress who claim to support abortion rights — who have lamented the pain caused by S.B. 8 and the Court’s overturning of Roe — what are you waiting for? How much more suffering must we endure before you rein in these politicians in robes? All of our most fundamental rights are hanging in the balance — we have to expand the Court before it’s too late.”

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Take Back the Court raises awareness about the urgent need to expand the number of seats on the Supreme Court to address the theft of the court by Senator Mitch McConnell during the Obama Administration. Without adding seats, Congress will not be able to restore the right to vote, ensure reproductive freedom, protect workers, halt our climate emergency, or pass new legislation. Court expansion, which can be accomplished without a constitutional amendment, is the only reform that enables the un-rigging of the system and the restoration of democracy. Learn more: https://www.takebackthecourt.today/