Four years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a woman’s right to choose, remains a big topic for Mainers. In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization officially ended federal protections for abortion.
While the state has implemented its own protections, there are still ongoing discussions around U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) role in ending those federal protections and future votes she made that paved the way for the stripping of other state and federal abortion protections.
Collins voted to confirm both justices Neil Gorsuch in 2017 and Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. Both justices later voted with the majority to strip away federal abortion protections. But its her vote for Kavanaugh that has raised the most questions. She was widely considered to have cast the deciding vote in a contentious 50-48 confirmation battle.
Since then, Collins says she has no second thoughts about helping confirm the justices who voted to end the federal right to abortion.
In June, Collins told NEWS CENTER Maine, “I do not regret that vote,” when asked about her 2018 vote to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh. And at a later event in Randolph, she stated that she “would vote for him again,” according to The New York Times.
These Supreme Court confirmation votes are not the only ones that have caused discussion around Collins and federal protections for abortion.
Weeks prior to the Dobbs decision, Congress took up legislation to codify abortion protections. Collins voted against it despite repeatedly telling Mainers that she supports a woman’s right to choose. The bill failed 49-51.
And following the Dobbs decision, Collins has continued to cast anti-choice votes. She voted to confirm several lower court judges who have since ruled to restrict abortion access, including Judge James C. Ho, who argued the FDA’s approval of the abortion pill mifepristone should be thrown out, and Judges Stuart Kyle Duncan, Bridget S. Bade and Kenneth Kiyul Lee, who have each ruled in favor of state abortion bans.
As states continue to restrict abortion rights, and the pro-life movement pushes for a national abortion ban, this debate is unlikely to go away anytime soon.
