Today, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee shamefully chose to advance another one of Donald Trump’s anti-choice judicial nominees, William Ray II, to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. A nominee for a lifetime appointment on the bench must believe in and uphold our constitutional rights, including reproductive freedom. William Ray II, whose anti-choice and bigoted record speaks for itself.

• As a state senator, Ray made clear that one of his priorities was to restrict access to abortion care.1
• While serving in the senate, he voted in favor of a bill that criminalizes certain abortion services and carries up to a five-year prison sentence for abortion care providers.2

• He used his leadership position in his local Republican Party to shepherd a resolution that blatantly discriminated against LGBT people, as it stood in strong opposition to “any plan, legislation, or resolution which may explicitly or implicitly condone homosexual behavior.”3

• He also voted against increasing sentences for hate crimes, or crimes motivated by a victim’s “actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, ethnicity, gender, disability, or sexual orientation.”4

1. Billy Ray, Welfare, teen driving among hottest bills, Forsyth County News, March 21, 1997.

2. S.B.357 (Ga. 1997)

3. Lucy Soto, Republicans join fray over family values, Atlanta Journal Constitution, August 26, 1993.

4. S.B.390 (Ga. 2000)