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Five months after Loretta Lynch was nominated by President Obama to replace Attorney General Eric Holder, she’s still awaiting confirmation. Now, women civil rights leaders are uniting to stage a hunger strike in an effort to move along the delayed process.

The group, composed of leaders from Reverend Al Sharpton’s National Action Network (NAN) and a number of activists, launched a fasting campaign Wednesday dubbed Confirm Lynch Fast.

According to a NAN press release:

Confirm Lynch Fast is a fast inspired by the examples of leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi and Cesar Chavez, who used fasting or hunger strikes as a nonviolent approach to resolving conflict. The Confirm Lynch Fast campaign will call attention to the needs of the people who need the assistance of the Justice Department most, like the family of Walter Scott, the most recent victim of police brutality in South Carolina or those who face new legal challenges that threaten their right to vote.

Lynch’s nomination delay has been in part caused by an alignment to an unrelated Senate fight over a human trafficking bill and its anti-abortion provisions. Lynch has, however, garnered support from Senate Republicans, including Susan Collins of Maine, Orrin Hatch of Utah, Jeff Flake of Arizona, and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

The chamber is not expected to make a decision until the dispute over the trafficking bill is resolved, Politico writes.

The civil rights group is hoping to push the confirmation along by hosting the fast. Participants will refrain from eating for one day at a time until the twice-confirmed United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York’s position has been solidified.

According to NAN, a new group will replace the fasters from the previous day.

“As long as the Senate refuses to take fifteen minutes to confirm someone for Attorney General that they have already confirmed twice for U.S. Attorney,” National Action Network and its allies “will do everything in our power to draw attention to this completely unfair and unnecessary delay to vote to confirm Loretta Lynch,” Sharpton, who founded NAN, said in a statement Wednesday.

The group’s executive director, Janaye Ingram, added: “We stand with Loretta Lynch and are so in support of this cause that we are willing to sacrifice our daily meals to impress upon the U.S. Senate that it’s time to call a vote.”

Lynch reportedly has the votes it will take to move the confirmation along. We’ll keep you updated with the latest.

SOURCE: NAN, Politico | PHOTO CREDIT: AP

SEE ALSO:

Black Women March To Sen. Mitch McConnell’s Office To Push Loretta Lynch Confirmation