Statement of NOW President Toni Van Pelt:
Doug Jones, Democratic candidate in the Alabama special election, has the power to curb the misogyny plaguing women across the country. Alabama women have the power send him to the U.S. Senate.
As a U.S. Attorney, Jones took action to put violent anti-choicers behind bars. He spearheaded the prosecution of Eric Rudolph–who bombed the New Woman All Women Health Care Center in Birmingham, and later admitted to bombing an additional abortion clinic and an Atlanta lesbian bar. “I was having breakfast just blocks away and ran to the scene,” Jones remembers. “The image of a bombed building and body of a police officer will remain with me for the rest of my life.”
Speaking to Chuck Todd on MSNBC in late September, Jones delivered his full and unconditional support for reproductive choice: “I am a firm believer that a woman should have the freedom to choose what happens to her own body and I will stand up for that and make sure that continues to happen,” Jones said. “I want to make sure that as we go forward people have access to contraception and access to the abortion that they might need if that’s what they choose to do.”
Jones was also taken action to convict violent white supremacists–successfully convicting Thomas Blanton and Bobby Frank Cherry for murder 40 years after the church bombing in Birmingham that killed four young African American girls and galvanized the civil rights movement.
Jones stands in sharp contrast to opponent, Roy Moore, who has alienated even steadfast Republicans with statements revealing his misogynistic, homophobic, and hateful beliefs. Jones says: “America is a nation of laws, justice, equality and opportunity, and we must push back against those who threaten those fundamental American values.”
I agree, and so do Alabama’s women. Tai Hicks, president of Greater Birmingham NOW says: “Women, people of color and members of the LGBTIA community would sleep better at night knowing that Jones, not Moore is in the Senate. Alabamians have worked so hard to make life better for all her citizens; we cannot afford to go backward.”
Women across the U.S. are looking to the women of Alabama to show up to the polls on December 12. We’re calling on Alabama feminists to get out and vote for Doug Jones!
Contact
M.E. Ficarra, press@now.org, 951-547-1241