WASHINGTON - July 6 - Following is a statement of Elizabeth Cavendish, interim president of NARAL Pro-Choice America:

The Senate gave President Bush's court-packing plan a big green light today. J. Leon Holmes is one of Bush's worst picks. He is anti-choice and anti-woman and now he has been appointed to the federal bench for life.

NARAL Pro-Choice America fought this nomination because of Holmes' longstanding leadership level opposition to a woman's right to choose. His writings include statements such as "the wife is to subordinate herself to her husband," and comparing pro-choice advocates to "Nazis." He has also argued that "...concern for rape victims is a red herring because conceptions from rape occur with approximately the same frequency as snowfall in Miami." In fact, studies estimate that between 25,000 and 32,000 women each year become pregnant as a result of rape in the United States, and about 50 percent of these pregnancies end in abortion.

NARAL Pro-Choice America activists sent more than 50,000 email messages to Congress this past month against the Holmes nomination. Despite this, the Senate still allowed this dangerous ideologue to make rulings over women's reproductive rights and fundamental freedoms for a generation to come.

###