Center’s Concerns About Judge Barrett’s Reproductive Rights Views “Further Intensified” After Committee Testimony

The Center for Reproductive Rights has issued an updated report after analyzing Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee October 12-14. The report, issued October 16, concludes that the Center’s earlier concerns about Judge Barrett’s extreme record opposing reproductive rights are “further intensified” as a result of her testimony.

The new report follows an earlier analysis issued by the Center on October 7 that examined Judge Barrett’s judicial rulings during her three years as an appellate court judge, her academic writings and speeches, and her public statements and advocacy against reproductive rights. Based on that analysis—which concluded that Judge Barrett “stands all too ready, if not eager, to undermine women’s basic liberty rights”—the Center announced its opposition to Judge Barrett’s confirmation. The opposition marked only the second time since the Center’s founding in 1992 that it opposed a Supreme Court nominee.

During her confirmation hearing before the Judiciary Committee, Judge Barrett consistently refused to address the overwhelming evidence in her record that demonstrated her hostility to decades of U.S. Supreme Court jurisprudence protecting reproductive rights.

The Center’s new report states that during her testimony, Judge Barrett:

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  Flatly refused to answer whether Roe v. Wade was correctly decided, even though she was willing to offer her views on other Supreme Court decisions.

  
  


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  Made clear that she does not consider Roe to be among a select group of cases that she considers to be “super precedent”—cases that are so well settled that no political actors would push to overturn them.

  
  

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  Consistently refused to provide meaningful answers about her views of the Constitution’s protections for reproductive rights, but instead merely summarized the history of Supreme Court rulings.

  
  


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  Justified alarming judicial overreach in reproductive rights cases to address issues she wanted to reach and misrepresented her handling of Supreme Court precedent in an abortion “bubble zone” case.

  
  


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  Used inflammatory and inaccurate rhetoric to describe unconstitutional restrictions on abortion.

  
  

Read the full Center report here: “Update to the Report of the Center for Reproductive Rights on the Nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to be Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court”

The stakes of this nomination could not be higher. The next Supreme Court justice will hear cases impacting people’s lives for generations to come—not only on issues of reproductive rights, but on access to health care, voting rights, LGBTQ rights, and disability rights. On abortion rights alone, more than a dozen cases are in the Supreme Court pipeline—including test cases aiming to overturn Roe or chip away at its protections.

The Supreme Court’s vital role in protecting and upholding civil rights and liberties cannot be compromised by a nominee fundamentally hostile to our constitutional rights. The Center for Reproductive Rights opposes the confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett.

Take action:

Tell your Senators to vote NO on Judge Barrett’s confirmation.

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