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Aspen Ruhlin is the community engagement manager at Mabel Wadsworth Center, an independent, feminist sexual and reproductive health center that has been providing care in Bangor for over 40 years.
Last week, Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King voted to confirm anti-abortion judicial nominee Joshua Divine to a lifetime position as a federal district court judge in Missouri. While both U.S. senators, who have sworn to represent the people of Maine, claim to support access to abortion, this vote clearly contradicts that.
Divine has a record of being extremely anti-abortion. As Missouri’s solicitor general, he championed legal strategies to ban abortion and to punish patients and providers.
Though Divine might be 1,500 miles away, his confirmation to the federal judiciary is still relevant for Mainers. Divine is part of a longer-term, coordinated campaign to confirm anti-abortion judges across the country, thereby chipping away at abortion rights until abortion is banned nationwide, including in Maine.
Collins and King played right into this plan.
Given Sen. Collins’ uneven record on voting in the interest of abortion access and women’s rights, such as her vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, many may be less surprised by her vote to confirm Divine.
It seems that when Collins’ vote will not make a difference in the outcome of what is being voted on, she votes in line with the values she claims to have, whether that’s protecting abortion access or social safety nets. When her vote would make a difference, it appears that Collins votes on party lines, sometimes even in direct opposition to her stated values. In this case, Divine’s judgeship just barely passed by a simple majority (51 votes), and therefore Collins apparently needed to abandon her values in order to get him across the finish line. Something can not be a deeply held value if the person who claims to hold it doesn’t stick to it when it matters.
Sen. King, however, has a much more consistent voting record when it comes to pro-choice values, leading to shock from many Mainers with his vote to confirm Divine as a district court judge.
What led him astray? According to the senator himself, he didn’t do his research into Divine’s values or records and simply abided by the request of Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri. This begs the question: why?
Why would a U.S. senator not do his job by doing basic research on a judicial nominee for a lifetime appointment before casting a vote? Why would a senator take the recommendation of another senator who seemingly has little to no shared values? Why would a senator who has sworn to represent the people of Maine bend to the will of a senator who has made no such promise to Mainers?
Unfortunately, we have no answers to these questions. Notably, Sen. Hawley failed to support President Joe Biden’s district court nominees for Maine, such as Judge Stacy Neumann.
Mainers support abortion access. It seems Mainers know that abortions are normal, common, essential care, with 1 in 4 people capable of getting pregnant having one or more abortion in their lifetime. With hard work from advocates and legislators, Maine has legal protections for abortion access that help Mainers build the lives and families that are right for them.
These votes from King and Collins aren’t just an attack on abortion access for all Americans, I believe they’re a betrayal of Mainers.
Luckily for Sens. Collins and King, they may soon have an opportunity to gain back Mainers’ trust.
Trump has put forward anti-abortion nominee Joshua Dunlap, who if confirmed, would join the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit, which includes Maine.
Dunlap, a far-right corporate lawyer, has a concerning anti-abortion record, including supporting abortion restrictions for minors, which would create additional barriers to care for an already vulnerable population.
Mainers don’t deserve another betrayal from our senators. We urge Sens. King and Collins to stand firmly with the values of the people that they represent, redeem themselves, and oppose Dunlap’s nomination to the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals.