During Senate confirmation hearings yesterday, Judge Brett Kavanaugh refused to state that having an abortion is a right that women have.
Senator Diane Feinstein from California attempted to bait Judge Kavanaugh into answering whether or not he agreed that women have a right to abortion. Senator Feinstein also asked Judge Kavanaugh whether he thought that Roe v. Wade was correctly decided.
Despite Senator Feinstein’s attempts to get Judge Kavanaugh to commit to supporting abortion once he is confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice, Judge Kavanaugh declined to support either assertion. Judge Kavanaugh instead answered similarly to how previous Supreme Court nominees have answered similar inquiries during their confirmation hearings. Namely, he stated that Roe v. Wade is a precedent set by the Supreme Court and that therefore the decision is deserving of respect. This is not to say that legalizing abortion cannot or should not be overturned though, as one Supreme Court precedent – that of partial birth abortion – has already been reversed.
Senator Diane Feinsten was unhappy with Judge Kavanaugh’s response. After the Senate confirmation hearings she tweeted:
Thomas, Alito, Roberts and Gorsuch used the same playbook: 1. Profess loyalty to precedent in Senate hearings 2. Overturn precedent once on the bench. We can’t accept vague promises from Brett Kavanaugh when women’s reproductive freedom is at stake.
— Senator Dianne Feinstein (@SenFeinstein) September 5, 2018
Many both on both sides of the aisle when it comes to abortion are pointing to a speech that Judge Kavanaugh gave last year in which he said that the Roe v. Wade decision was a “freewheeling judicial creation of unenumerated rights that were not rooted in the nation’s history and tradition.”
Judge Kavanaugh reportedly did refer to Roe v. Wade as “settled law” in a meeting with pro-abortion Republican Senator Susan Collins. Thus far, Judge Kavanaugh’s comments regarding abortion seem to be noncommittal to the pro-abortion Senators who are repeatedly trying to entrap him to committing to rule in favor of upholding Roe v. Wade.
