Judge Kavanaugh would threaten hard-won rights and protections for reproductive freedom.
Judge Kavanaugh had to pass an anti-choice litmus test in order to get on President Trump’s Supreme Court shortlist.
- President Trump campaigned on the promise that he would nominate Supreme Court justices in the Thomas-Scalia mold who would “unpass” Roe v. Wade
- Judge Kavanaugh was on the Supreme Court shortlist provided to Trump by the Federalist Society, with which Kavanaugh has a long affiliation, and the Heritage Foundation—both right-wing legal organizations deeply committed to overturning Roe
- Judge Kavanaugh became one of Trump’s final round selections for the Kennedy seat after his Garza v. Hargan dissent arguing that the Trump administration can block a young immigrant woman from getting an abortion
- Trump’s first shortlist pick, Justice Neil Gorsuch, has already proven his anti-choice bona fides by joining the NIFLA v. Becerra concurrence that likened California’s effort to prevent fraudulent anti-abortion counseling centers from providing incomplete, misleading, or false information to pregnant women to ” relentless authoritarian regimes”
After President Trump announced Judge Kavanaugh as his nominee to succeed Justice Anthony Kennedy, anti-choice zealots rejoiced.
- Operation Rescue’s Troy Newman welcomed the “long-awaited relief from the liberal judicial activism that manufactured so-called ‘abortion rights’ out of thin air”
- Americans United for Life’s Catherine Glenn Foster called this “a seminal moment for America” and called Roe and Casey “two of the worst examples of judicial activism”
- Susan B. Anthony List’s Marjorie Dannenfelser cheered Judge Kavanaugh’s “strong record of protecting life and constitutional rights”
- The list goes on
Judge Kavanaugh’s judicial record further demonstrates his extreme hostility to reproductive freedom.
- Garza v. Hargan dissent argues that the Trump administration can block a young, immigrant woman from getting an abortion, borrowing language from anti-abortion zealots to distort the majority opinion as creating “immediate abortion on demand”
- Priests for Life v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services dissent argues in favor of employers’ religious beliefs overriding their employees’ right to birth control coverage
- According to former Kavanaugh clerk Sarah Pitlyk in a 2018 op-ed, “[o]n the vital issues of protecting religious liberty and enforcing restrictions on abortion, no court-of-appeals judge in the nation has a stronger, more consistent record”
Judge Kavanaugh’s anti-choice fealty is just as clear outside his judicial role.
- Cites the Rehnquist dissent in Roe in calling the late chief justice his “first judicial hero” in a 2017 speech to the conservative American Enterprise Institute
- Charges Roe with spurring decades of ambiguity in a 2017 speech at Notre Dame
But senators and the American people still require all Kavanaugh documents in order to fully understand his record on reproductive freedom.
- Judge Kavanaugh served as White House staff secretary—a senior advisor role deeply involved in major policy decisions—from 2003-2006, when President Bush signed the federal abortion ban into law
- A responsible senator who supports Roe will not recklessly allow a vote on this lifetime nominee until they have a chance to review his full record, including documents from his staff secretary tenure