Eliza Collins

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The anti-abortion advocacy group Susan B. Anthony List celebrated Judge Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation to the Supreme Court on Friday, touting it as the first completed promise by President Trump to anti-abortion advocates.

“This day makes that torturous primary and a grueling general election all worth it,” Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser told USA TODAY. “It’s just a day of great jubilation.”

Anti-abortion advocates backed Gorsuch, a conservative judge from Colorado, because they saw his opinions from his time in the lower courts as confirmation that his rulings on future cases will be favorable to them.

Gorsuch was confirmed to the Supreme Court midday Friday by a 54-45 vote. When it became clear Gorsuch did not have enough votes to overcome a Democratic filibuster earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., changed the Senate rules so that his nomination could move forward with a simple majority.

Abortion opponents see Gorsuch's appointment as a much-needed win. They were left disappointed that Planned Parenthood remains funded after the Republican bill to repeal and replace Obamacare — which included cuts to the women's health organization — was put on hold last month.

“We were confident that (the health care legislation) would happen really quickly along with everybody else who thought we would replace health care quickly. But since it hasn’t happened quickly, this day is reinvigorating,” Dannenfelser said, referring to Gorsuch’s expected confirmation.

Dannenfelser remains hopeful that legislation that defunds Planned Parenthood and makes permanent the Hyde Amendment — which bars taxpayer funds from being used for abortions — will eventually make it to the president’s desk. Currently the Hyde Amendment keeps getting renewed by being tacked onto appropriation bills. The health care bill would have provided additional protections to the amendment, but it wouldn't have made it permanent; that would have to come separately.

Dannenfelser — and many of the major anti-abortion organizations — were not originally for Trump. But after he became the Republican nominee, and chose then-Indiana governor and anti-abortion crusader Mike Pence as his running mate, she decided to formally endorse him and take a chance on the man who had once said he was “very pro-choice.”

To help ease concerns, Trump started a “pro-life coalition” and invited Dannenfelser to run it. In the letter he sent to potential co-chairs of the organization, he made four promises. One of the commitments was to nominate “pro-life justices to the U.S. Supreme Court.” The others were to defund Planned Parenthood and reallocate their funding to community health centers, sign a 20-week abortion ban and make the Hyde Amendment permanent.

Over the course of the 2016 election cycle, Susan B. Anthony List spent $18 million on a ground campaign that knocked on 1.1 million doors and issued direct mail and digital advertisements against former secretary of State Hillary Clinton and for Trump and Senate candidates.

Ahead of Gorsuch’s confirmation, SBA List activists made more than 10,000 calls to Democrats up for re-election next year in states that Trump won to express their support for the nominee, and SBA List ran digital ads in those states as well.

Dannenfelser said getting Gorsuch on the Supreme Court — even if Republicans had to change the Senate rules to do so — is validating to all of the anti-abortion advocates.

“Now is the consequence of every single thing that they did,” Dannenfelser said. “It was all worth it and I can’t wait to get back into it because 2018 can have similar confirmation of why this is important.”

Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Cecile Richards issued a statement after Gorsuch was confirmed that slammed the incoming justice for being “so outside of the mainstream.”

“Women marched en masse in January because they feared the worst,” Richards said, referring to the women's marches that took place around the world in January. “Today, those fears were confirmed. Neil Gorsuch’s judicial philosophy and record leave no doubt that he will seek to restrict abortion and cut off access to birth control. Judge Gorsuch is so outside of the mainstream that Senator McConnell had to change the rules in order to jam through his confirmation.

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