From the first Democratic question posed to Amy Coney Barrett at her Supreme Court confirmation hearing, abortion played a central role in opposition to the judge’s likely ascendance to the court.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, as soon as her questioning time began on Tuesday, asked Barrett if she agreed with her mentor Justice Antonin Scalia that Roe v. Wade, the landmark case legalizing abortion nationwide, was “wrongly decided.” Barrett responded that she could not answer the question because of her position on a federal court but promised to “follow the law” as far as abortion litigation was concerned. Throughout the rest of the two days of questioning, other Democratic senators attempted to pin her down on the question with similar, fruitless results.
Barrett affirmed to Sen. Richard Blumenthal on Tuesday that the court had upheld Roe in the 1994 decision Planned Parenthood v. Casey but did not say whether or not she agreed with that decision. A few hours later, she denied in response to questioning from Sen. Amy Klobuchar that Roe is a “super-precedent,” meaning a case whose outcome is widely agreed upon. Barrett instead said that it likely “doesn’t fall into that category.” She reiterated these answers on Wednesday as senators continued to press her on the topic.
Barrett also sidestepped another approach to her position on Roe in a series of exchanges with Sen. Chris Coons. As Coons attempted to get Barrett to give her opinion on Griswold v. Connecticut, a 1965 decision that made birth control widely available, Barrett said that case was unlikely to be revisited in a society that widely accepts birth control. And when Coons pressed her, Barrett demurred, saying that she couldn’t comment on due process, meaning cases that could be overturned.
“I think that the only reason for asking that question is to lay a precedent for whether Roe is rightly decided because Griswold does lie at the foundation of that line of precedent,” she said. “Because Griswold does involve substantive due process, an area that remains one subject to litigation all over the country, I don’t think it’s an issue that I can opine on, but nor do I think Griswold is in danger of going anywhere.”
Throughout their questions, Senate Democrats tied Barrett’s apparent personal opposition to abortion to what they claimed was a wider assault on the Affordable Care Act, which many in the Senate, as well as former vice president Joe Biden, falsely claimed Barrett has said she would overturn. Sen. Kamala Harris raised these concerns in both her Tuesday and Wednesday questions, citing instances in Barrett’s personal life where she had shown opposition to abortion as women’s “healthcare.”
“I would suggest that we not pretend that we don’t know how this nominee views a woman’s right to choose and make her own healthcare decisions,” Harris, who is Biden’s running mate, told the committee during her Tuesday questions.
Republicans have defended Barrett’s claim that she is an originalist and a textualist, meaning that she will only make rulings based on the words of the Constitution and the texts in a case. At the same time, some Republicans acknowledged that some of their support for Barrett is based on the perception that she is conservative.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn repeatedly referenced Barrett’s family in her questions, and after the Tuesday hearings told reporters that she believes Democrats fear Barrett because of her anti-abortion personal beliefs.
“They want to send a signal,” Blackburn said of Senate Democrats. “If you’re pro-life, pro-family, pro-religion, pro-business, pro-military, they do not think your voice counts — and if you’re not in agreement with what the Left says should be women’s issues.”
