Extremist judges will not stop endangering the lives of pregnant people or people who may become pregnant—overturning Roe v. Wade, attacking medication abortion, threatening the future of IVF, and this week at SCOTUS, emergency abortion care.
Our lawyers are waging strategic fights that make clear what is at stake for people who can become pregnant and seek to bolster our fundamental rights to control our lives, futures, and destinies.
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Nancy Abudu is a civil rights champion and unwavering advocate for voting rights, reproductive rights, and gender justice who would make a tremendous addition to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit if she’s confirmed by the Senate. A graduate of Columbia University and Tulane University School of Law, Abudu currently serves as the Strategic Litigation Director at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and has significant litigation experience protecting the rights of women, people of color, and LGBTQ people in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia where the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has jurisdiction. Her extensive civil rights and gender justice expertise along with her deep commitment to safeguarding democracy is much needed on the federal bench, particularly in the Deep South. Here’s what you need to know about Nancy Abudu:
Throughout Abudu’s impressive career, she’s defended and protected fundamental rights for all people. At the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, she fought for reproductive rights, including a challenge to Florida’s H.B. 633 law, which imposed a 24-hour mandatory delay and additional trip to the doctor for pregnant people seeking abortion care in the state. She’s worked to advance and protect LGBTQ rights, including challenges to ensure marriage equality and adequate health care for an incarcerated transgender person. Additionally, Abudu is a distinguished and renowned voting rights expert with significant experience protecting the right to vote. She has challenged a broad range of discriminatory voting practices from voter ID laws and gerrymandering to bans on curbside voting during the COVID-19 pandemic. Abudu’s broad range of civil rights experience and deep understanding of the Constitution is rare among sitting federal judges and would be a tremendous addition to the Eleventh Circuit.
The confirmation of Abudu would also add important racial, gender and professional diversity to the federal appellate bench. She is a first-generation Ghanaian-American and would be the first Black woman to ever serve on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Black people make up over 25 percent of the population of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, which the Eleventh Circuit has jurisdiction over, and it is long overdue for a Black woman jurist to serve on the federal appellate bench there. Additionally, if confirmed, she’d be one of a handful of federal appellate judges with extensive experience litigating civil rights cases.
Nancy Abudu is immensely qualified to serve on the Eleventh Circuit and her nomination is critical for advancing gender justice and protecting fundamental rights for women, people of color, and LGBTQ people in the deep South. We urge the Senate to confirm Nancy Abudu to the Eleventh Circuit without delay.
