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Date: 8/9/2022
NORTHAMPTON – On Aug. 2, a group of community leaders gathered at Northampton City Hall to speak out against the recent approval of Claudine Cloutier as an associate justice to the Superior Court in Massachusetts.
Local artist and activist Anja Schultz, local attorney and candidate for Governor’s Council Jeff Morneau and local community organizer Sara Seinberg each spoke out against the state’s approval of Cloutier to the Superior Court after it was revealed that Cloutier made financial contributions to a national anti-abortion organization.
Campaign records specifically found that Cloutier financially supported the Susan B. Anthony List Candidate’s Fund, an organization that lists the following on their website – “SBA Pro-Life America’s mission is to end abortion by electing national leaders and advocating for laws that save lives, with a special calling to promote pro-life women leaders.”
The Governor’s Council eventually voted 5-3 in favor of confirming Cloutier as a Superior Court judge. Cloutier was asked about her stance on reproductive rights by Councilor Eileen Duff of Gloucester during her public interview on July 13 at a Governor’s Council hearing.
“I would be bound to uphold the law in Massachusetts,” Cloutier said, when asked by Duff if she would uphold the law in Massachusetts where women have the right to make decisions based on the autonomy of their body.
“I need to know that you support the woman’s right to choose, as a judge,” said Duff, who was one of three councilors who voted against the appointment of Cloutier. “I don’t care what you do personally – that’s none of my business, right? Your religion’s none of my business … I need to know with absolute certainty that you would uphold a woman’s right to choose in Massachusetts.”
Cloutier responded, “It’s hard for me to imagine under what scenario that particular question would come before a Superior Court judge. I’ve not seen that. I’m not privy to that. I can only tell you that I would judge every matter before me in accordance with the law and uphold the law.”
Cloutier, a Fall River native, has managed the Keches Law Group’s tort department since 2006, and also serves on the Fall River High School Alumni Scholarship Fund trustees, the board of the Foundation to Advance Catholic Education through the Diocese of Fall River, and the Dean’s Cabinet at Suffolk Law.
There are eight members from all over Massachusetts that serve on the Governor’s Council; Western Massachusetts’ representative covers the Eighth District, which includes Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin and Berkshire Counties.
“Oftentimes, people don’t even know what the Governor’s Council is,” said Seinberg, during the City Hall gathering. “It is the most important elected positions that you’ve never heard of.”
Lynnfield Councilor Terry Kennedy, who also voted no in favor of appointing Cloutier, said that he thought Cloutier has a lot of legal experience, but found that her responses about women’s reproductive rights “kind of mimicked what Justice [Neil] Gorsuch and Justice [Brett] Kavanaugh said during their hearings.”
“People in Massachusetts think we’re doing great here, and this massive legislation just passed the governor’s desk that protects the right to abortion means we don’t have anything to worry about here,” said Seinberg. “But make no mistake, the pro-choice advocates are going for a nationwide ban. They’re not going to stop.”
Among the councilors to vote for Cloutier was Eighth District Councilor Mary Hurley, who Seinberg described as someone who typically has been an advocate for women. “For whatever reason, she voted to move this judge onto the bench, and I do not know why,” said Seinberg. “I am baffled and furious about it. Had Councilor Hurley cast her vote against a forced birth advocate, we wouldn’t be here.”
Also among the speakers during the City Hall event was local artist activist Anja Schultz, a photographer who has been working on a portraiture project that involves talking to people about how abortion has impacted their daily lives.
“I started talking to friends around me, as well as people I’ve never met before, about what this [Roe v. Wade] overturning means to them, and what they think is going to happen,” said Schultz. “The wonderful thing about this project is that it’s completely caption driven. The reason this is so valuable is because every single person I’ve spoken with has submitted a completely different perspective of why they support abortion access.”
“There are all these incredibly important reasons, from health reasons to mental health reasons, to personal convictions about why we need to be able to continue [abortion] access,” Schultz continued.
With Hurley electing not to run for reelection on Governor’s Council, Jeffrey Morneau, a founding partner at Connor & Morneau LLP, stated that he would run for her seat in the upcoming election. During the City Hall event, Morneau also spoke in favor of abortion access.
“It’s very important that the public is aware of everything in Massachusetts around this issue,” he said. “It is absolutely shocking an appalling to me that right here in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, we can have a candidate for Superior Court judgeship approved by Democrats that refuses on multiple occasions to unequivocally support a woman’s right choose, and a fundamental right to abortion. This is something we cannot stand for.”
Chelsea Sunday Kline, a writer, advocate, and former state Senate candidate, also released a statement about the Cloutier appointment: “Massachusetts has a long-standing reputation of being a progressive leader. That reality and reputation crumbles a little bit each time we let things like this slip through our fingers: we failed to block the appointment of Claudine Cloutier. Part of that is because we had no idea what was happening, and it is often difficult to find out. That’s the design. And as you all know, each and every win on the right leads to decreased rights and decency for us, the people. States that honor the bodily autonomy of people with uteruses must now be tenaciously guarded at every turn, in every hall of power, and in every street, otherwise there’ll be no safe harbors left.”
On July 26, Massachusetts lawmakers approved legislation to protect access to abortion and gender-affirming health care. Among many things, the legislation requires Massachusetts’ Medicaid program to cover abortion and allows over-the-counter emergency contraception to be sold in vending machines. The bill also expands access to medication abortion on public college and university campuses. Gov. Charlie Baker signed it into law officially on July 29. Despite this, advocates still want people to be wary of what is going on from a statewide perspective, and understand that pro-choice advocates will continue to push for a nationwide ban of abortion access.
“We’re here today to let people know that the Governor’s Council is important,” said Seinberg. “We need to know what everyone we’re voting for does, from the Secretary of State down to the Governor’s Council. Second of all, keep your eyes open, because things here aren’t as safe as you think they are. It’s not true blue like you think.”