Sen. Susan Collins criticized the U.S. Supreme Court’s Friday decision overturning Roe v. Wade as “radical” and warned of “political chaos” with abortion now or soon to be illegal in dozens of U.S. states.
The Republican senator is one of the few remaining members of her party to publicly support abortion rights and introduced legislation earlier this year that would have codified the Roe v. Wade decision in federal law, although the effort stands little chance of passage in the U.S. Senate due to the filibuster.
In a statement on Friday, Collins accused the court of abandoning “a fifty-year precedent at a time that the country is desperate for stability” and characterized the decision as a “sudden and radical jolt to the country that will lead to political chaos, anger, and a further loss of confidence in our government.”
“The threshold question of whether abortion is legal needs to be consistent at a national level. States can account for regional differences with regulations like parental notification requirements, but the basic right needs to be the same for all American women,” she said.
Collins faced pressure from reproductive rights advocates to oppose former President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees, including Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch, both of whom helped overturn the landmark abortion decision on Friday.
Collins had argued when voting to confirm both that they would not, noting in part that Kavanaugh had told her he viewed the issue as “settled.” Days before her 2020 reelection race and just after Trump installed his third conservative justice on the high court, Amy Coney Barrett, the Maine senator said she did not think Roe was in jeopardy.
But after a draft of the court’s decision was leaked to Politico in May, Collins said that the apparent support of Gorsuch and Kavanaugh for overturning the nearly 50-year-old abortion precedent was “completely inconsistent” with what they had told her privately.
In her Friday statement, she reiterated that, saying that both were “insistent on the importance of supporting long-standing precedents that the country has relied upon” in private meetings prior to their confirmations.
Kavanaugh’s position on Roe was one of the most hotly debated parts of his confirmation. While Collins downplayed the threat to abortion rights at the time, Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, who caucuses with Democrats, said then that the judge’s record indicated he would vote to overturn it or at least “whittle away its protections.”
“This decision is deeply infuriating, but it is unfortunately not a surprise,” King said in a statement.
On Friday, Collins also looked to highlight her work with Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, to develop legislation that could codify abortion rights federally. But few other Republicans would be on board with that and both Collins and some Democrats are unwilling to bypass the 60-vote filibuster to pass it.
“Our goal with this legislation is to do what the Court should have done — provide the consistency in our abortion laws that Americans have relied upon for 50 years,” she said.
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You would know all about radical wouldn’t you, Susan?
Susan Collins ,” RINO, ” You Don’t Represent The Republican Party Nor Does Liz Cheny , You Are A ” RINO ” TOO ,Just like Mitt Romey.
AND how is her words NOT incitement??
Sudden? It took 50 years.
Radical? Like murdering babies is normal.
Collins “ warned of “political chaos” with abortion now or soon to be illegal in dozens of U.S. states.”
Just what planet has she lived on since Roe v Wade divided this country between the people of Creation and the People of consumption,,,,Human consumption of national wealth and national soul that has done nothing to end the political chaos but just created more? She mentions that “ fifty-year precedent ( Actually 49) at a time that the country is desperate for stability” divided this country way less than the 61 Years Plessy V Ferguson upheld Separate but equal that also needed reversal.
“Our goal with this legislation is to do what the Court should have done — provide the consistency in our abortion laws that Americans have relied upon for 50 years,” she said. Of course, she knows better than our founding fathers who stated that those rights not mentioned devolve to the States not the Fed. When Roe v wade got shoved down our throats it was still a divisive and volatile issue it was not the majority opinion of THE PEOPLE, at a time in need of further debate which the imaged right and subsequent laws cut off all cogent debate of. She ignores the fact that hers is just such another illegal attempt to codify in federal law what must be codified in the broken hearts of American people, then changed by Constitutional amendment,,, and thus just continues the division.
To these followers of Moloch, killing babies IS normal.
Sen. Susan Collins is the epitome of “total chaos” and as a result Susan Collins should be made “illegal” in all of the states.
“Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” is a well-known phrase in the United States Declaration of Independence. The phrase gives three examples of the unalienable rights which the Declaration says have been given to all humans by their Creator, and which governments are created to protect.
The right to kill an unborn baby does Not appear in the U.S. Constitution or the Bill of Rights.
“The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of Roe and Casey now chiefly rely — the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”
It was neither radical or sudden, it has been fomenting for forty nine years. From the rendering of the decision it was inevitable that one day it would be struck down. The discenting Justices warned of it as did one who concurred. Even very liberal Constitutional scholars admitted it was a flawed opinion in its reasoning and conclusion. Years later Justice Blackmum who wrote the majority opinion said the Court erred in the decision and should never have taken up the case in the first place and left it for the states to make the laws!
Amendment 10
The Tenth Amendment says that the Federal Government only has those powers delegated in the Constitution.
If it isn’t listed, it belongs to the states or to the people.
The original decision went against all of human historical social mores. THAT was sudden and radical.
susan collins is a democrat.
until the gop starts weeding out the turn coats they will not get another penny of my money or support.
gun bill is the final nail for me they can all reside in hades.
republicans are nothing more than eunuchs who have sold america down the socialist democrat river for money and power.
we need a new party.
Yea, the constitutionalist party!