Pro-abortion activists protest Republicans to demand Garland vote

On Monday, pro-abortion activist gathered outside the offices of various Republican lawmakers to demand they hold a vote on President Obama’s judicial nominee, Merrick Garland.

The crowds, organized by left-wing groups such as MoveOn.org and Democracy for America, numbered roughly two dozen apiece outside 37 Republican Senators’ offices and 14 Democrats to thank them. The protesters carried signs saying “#DoYourJob” and “#FillTheSeat.”

“The idea that they need to wait until the people have spoken, well, the people already did speak,” said Barbara Eakins said outside the office of Senator Rob Portman from Ohio. “They spoke when they elected Obama to office twice.” However, two years after Obama’s reelection in 2012, the public also voted to return the Senate to Republican control.

Pro-lifers oppose any movement on Garland’s nomination because he does not have a clear judicial record indicating he would rule impartially on abortion, but has sided with the Obama Administration’s contraception mandate, praised Roe v. Wade author Justice Harry Blackmun, and formerly clerked for pro-abortion Justice William Brennan.

The pro-life Susan B. Anthony List has also set up a website, Protect the Court, to collect signatures to oppose filling the vacancy left by Justice Antonin Scalia’s death until the next president is in office.