Skip to main content
Statement

Moms Appalled by SCOTUS Rulings that Sanction Discrimination, Create Hardship, Poverty, and Pain

June 30, 2023

Lisa Lederer, 202/371-1996

Statement of Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, Executive Director and CEO of MomsRising, the online and on-the-ground organization of more than one million mothers and their families, on the U.S. Supreme Court rulings on student debt, affirmative action, and public accommodations:

“This week, the U.S. Supreme Court built on its disgraceful, regrettable record of denying rights and remedies to people who face discrimination and hardship with appalling decisions that limit the rights of LGBTQ+ customers and people of color pursuing higher education – and with its ruling striking down President Biden’s modest student debt relief program. The Biden program would have helped more than 40 million Americans struggling with crushing levels of student debt. Two-thirds of those who carry student debt are women; Black women and other borrowers of color are most severely burdened.

“This Trump-tainted, extremist Supreme Court has denied equitable access to higher education, allowed businesses to discriminate against our LGBTQ+ community, and consigned tens of millions of people to hardship. Coupled with the Court’s appalling, devastating ruling last summer in the Dobbs case, there is no question that the rollback of fundamental rights and freedoms is the hallmark of this Court. The country is suffering terribly as a result.

“Moms want people to be able to go to college without mortgaging their futures, colleges to be able to recruit diverse students, businesses that are open to be open to everyone, and women to be able to access reproductive health care, including abortion. Moms want Congress to pass the Equality Act, ensure colleges can use affirmative action, provide relief to the millions of people whose lives and futures are being constrained by student debt, and pass the Women’s Health Protection Act and the EACH Act.

“This Supreme Court is failing the country. It must not have the last word on these issues, which will shape our future.”

# # # #

MomsRising.org is an on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people who are working to increase family economic security, stop discrimination against women and moms, and build a nation where businesses and families can thrive. Established in 2006, MomsRising and its members are organizing and speaking out to improve public policy and to change the national dialogue on issues that are critically important to America’s families, including criminal justice reform, immigration policy reform, and gun safety. MomsRising is working for paid family and medical leave, affordable, high quality childcare and early learning, and for an end to the wage and hiring discrimination which penalizes women — particularly moms and women of color — and so many others. MomsRising advocates for access to healthy food for all kids, health care for all, earned sick days, and breastfeeding rights so that all children can have a healthy start. MomsRising maintains a Spanish language website: www.MamásConPoder.org. Sign up online at www.MomsRising.org — and follow us on our blog, and on Twitter and Facebook.