Politics
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U.S. Sen. Susan Collins misstated a key detail of the Supreme Court decision ending federal abortion rights, arguing in a Monday interview with Fox News that the court would have ended federal abortion rights regardless of his presence on the bench.
Kavanaugh, whom the Republican senator backed in a 2018 move that prompted a major Democratic challenge to her, was in the 5-4 majority that made the landmark decision in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case in 2022.
Pressed on whether her Kavanaugh vote is a liability for her bid for a sixth term, Collins said she disagreed with the court’s ruling but that Kavanaugh was not decisive. She appeared to be referencing a 6-3 decision in which Chief Justice John Roberts joined conservatives to uphold Mississippi’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks. He separately argued against overturning Roe.
“Whether Justice Kavanaugh were confirmed or not, Roe v. Wade would have been overturned, given the 6-3 vote,” Collins said.
Democrats pounced on Collins just ahead of the four-year anniversary of the decision, which has led liberal groups and challenger Graham Platner to renew their focus on the vote that defined the senator’s 2020 campaign. The head of Planned Parenthood campaigned with Platner on Monday.
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Collins was a central figure in Kavanaugh’s 2018 confirmation. After a private meeting with Kavanaugh, Collins relayed that he viewed Roe as “settled law” and an “important precedent.” Those assurances formed a major part of her justification for backing him.
When the court’s Dobbs ruling came down in 2022, Kavanaugh wrote that Roe was “wrongly decided” and “should be overruled at this time.” Collins responded by calling the decision a “sudden and radical jolt to the country” and said the positions of both Kavanaugh and Justice Neil Gorsuch were inconsistent with what they told her before their confirmations.
But Collins has stood by her vote for Kavanaugh. In the Monday interview, she shifted to her broader record as a rare Republican who is in favor of abortion rights. As she often has over the years, she noted her support Democratic-appointed justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, all of whom voted to uphold Roe.
She highlighted her role in a bipartisan effort to codify Roe v. Wade into federal law, blaming then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, who “refused to bring up our bill.”
The Maine Democratic Party issued a Monday statement saying Collins “blatantly lied” about the decision. Platner argued on X that Kavanaugh was the deciding vote to overturn Roe and Collins was the deciding vote to confirm Kavanaugh. While she broke a deadlock in the Senate chamber, he was ultimately confirmed 50-48 with a Republican senator absent.
Collins spokesperson Blake Kernen acknowledged that the senator misspoke, “just like Graham Platner ‘misspoke’ when he said that she was the deciding vote on Kavanaugh because obviously it was a two vote margin.” She said any other Trump appointee would have likely voted the same way and pointed to Collins’ late-2020 opposition to Trump-appointed Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who could also be considered the deciding vote on Dobbs.
“This is a ridiculous discussion by Platner, but if we are having the ridiculous discussion, those are the counter points,” Kernen said.
Collins looked to keep the focus on Platner and his string of controversies in her first lengthy interview since he locked down the Democratic nomination, criticizing the political newcomer for his since-covered tattoo of a Nazi symbol and several offensive Reddit posts that were unearthed in October.
“He is very different from me,” she said. “He’s the antithesis of the steady leadership that I provide in Washington that has delivered real results for the state of Maine and for our nation.”