Planned Parenthood’s super PAC is spending a historic amount targeting Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) for voting to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Collins is engaged in a tight battle for reelection against Democratic rival Troy Jackson in one of the most closely watched races nationwide, as Republican control of the Senate could hinge on its outcome.
Recommended Stories
As the November general election approaches, Planned Parenthood Votes is spending $600,000 on ads targeting Collins in a bid to frame her as an opponent of abortion for voting to confirm Kavanaugh, who later endorsed overturning Roe v. Wade. The ad buy is the organization’s biggest such investment of the 2026 political cycle, reflecting how critical Democrats believe the race is.
Collins, known as a moderate in Maine, supports abortion until the point of fetal viability, when the baby can survive outside the womb. She doesn’t back late-term abortions, except when the mother’s health is in question. The senator has said she stands by her vote to confirm Kavanaugh, as such votes have traditionally been bipartisan. The senator has also criticized the court’s landmark 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, ruling that abortion is not a constitutional right.
Still, Collins has drawn criticism from abortion advocates for backing Kavanaugh, who was a yes vote in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling, as well as for casting a procedural vote to advance President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year, which cut federal funding for Planned Parenthood. In the Senate’s final vote on the bill, Collins did not vote for it to become law.
“The Planned Parenthood Action Fund cares more about electing Democrats than any issue,” Blake Kernen, a spokesperson for Collins, told the Washington Examiner.
“Just last year, Planned Parenthood released a memo literally called: ‘Senator Susan Collins’ long history of supporting Planned Parenthood and access to essential healthcare,'” Kernen added. “Now they are endorsing a candidate who as recently as 2013 received a 100% pro life rating. As Planned Parenthood itself said, Susan Collins has always supported access to care for Mainers and all Americans, and she will continue to do so.”
Collins’s Democratic rival is Jackson, who replaced former Democratic nominee Graham Platner on the ticket. Jackson spent six years as the Maine Senate president and received perfect marks from the anti-abortion group Maine Right to Life in 2010. In 2022, he told Maine Public that he continued to personally struggle with abortion. Jackson now supports late-term abortions and cosponsored a 2023 law that allows abortions after viability when necessary in “the professional judgment of a physician.”
TRUMP’S NEW DEPUTY HHS SECRETARY HAS TIES TO THE FERTILITY INDUSTRY
Planned Parenthood Votes’ move to tackle Jackson’s Republican nemesis comes as part of a $47 million ad campaign aiming to make abortion a focal point in the 2026 midterm elections and target the Republican Party’s slim majority in Congress.
“We are ambitious, because really it’s an existential moment,” Planned Parenthood Votes Executive Director Sarah Standiford said when launching the “We Decide” campaign in July. “This is a time where voters have an opportunity to take back our right to decide our lives and our future, state by state, and that really requires a scale of impact that is significant.”
