Kavanaugh Hearings a battleground for abortion, birth control


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Senator Kamala Harris at the confirmation hearing in the Supreme Court of Brett Kavanaugh's Senate

welcome to Week of Reproductive Justice Weekly Recap of all the news related to the hot button issue of what lawmakers allow women to do with their bodies!

can you name a law that gives the government control of the male body? This is what Senator Kamala Harris asked Brett Kavanaugh at Wednesday's Supreme Court confirmation hearings, to which Kavanaugh responded that he was "not aware of everything yet".

In other words, the incessant conflict over whether the government has the right to prohibit or restrict abortion and force women to carry term pregnancies is intrinsically linked. to sexual control. The unique simplicity of the question was as beautiful as any aspect of Senate hearings that could decide the fate of human rights in that country.

As you can probably guess, abortion and reproductive rights have been at the center of this week's hearings, and for good reason. As a reminder, it is obvious that Kavanaugh will vote for the dismantling of abortion rights if confirmed in the Supreme Court. The president has chosen Kavanaugh in a short list with a decisive anti-abortion test, after promising in campaigning to appoint anti-choice judges, and bringing together his cabinet of officials dedicated to the reduction of reproductive rights.

Kavanaugh praised dissent in the case of historical abortion Roe v. WadeIn one of the cases where he ruled on abortion, he subscribed to the Trump administration's desire to prevent a detained immigrant Jane Doe from gaining access to abortion. Kavanaugh also advocated the ability of employers and insurers to deny women access to birth control – while qualifying Thursday's hormonal birth control for "drugs causing abortion" ". – Informed (or naughty) enough to equate abortion with birth control should make decisions about one or the other.

If you put two and two together, his opposition to birth control and abortion speaks volumes about the dynamics of toxic power that Kavanaugh would allow if he were confirmed in court, and showed how much Harris was needed.

And fortunately, despite the statistical obstacles between them, Senate Democrats spent the week defending themselves. For so many groups of people in this country, everything is at stake with the appointment of Kavanaugh. And there is not a single person in the United States who is unaffected by the inevitable and terrifying restrictions on our reproductive options that confirm Kavanaugh's success. That's why the work of the Democratic Senate is so important.

In addition to his question about the government and male organs, Harris asked Kavanaugh whether he thought Congress had the power to pass a law banning abortion at the federal level or prohibiting abortion at the level of State. He refused to answer both.

In the same way, Senator Mazie Hirono launched Kavanaugh with a question referring to his decision in the aforementioned Jane Doe case, asking if he thought that women and undocumented minors in the United States had right to an abortion. Kavanaugh responded, "The Supreme Court has recognized that people in the United States have constitutional rights," which was really the same as saying nothing, but the question, similar to another question asked by Senator Dick Durbin, about the discordant record of Kavanaugh's intersectional oppression.

Senator Dianne Feinstein on Wednesday used her platform on the Judiciary Committee to show how Roe v. Wade has allowed women to "participate in the economic and social life of the nation", as well as another scathing reality that many politicians dare to speak to: roeIn the 1950s and 1960s, between 200,000 and 1.2 million women die each year from unsafe abortions. We see the ghosts of this reality today, even in a world with roe, as the maternal mortality rate in the United States is the highest in the industrial world and is increasing in states that impose more restrictions on abortion.

Kavanaugh answered Feinstein's questions about how he would manage roe conceding: "In general, I understand the importance of the previous statement in Roe v. Wade. "That said, even if I hate to be the one who tells you, men lie (shocking, I know). In addition, the previous technical roe has been around for almost 50 years, while Supreme Court decisions and a series of federal and state-level laws have always hacked it.

Speaking of Kavanaugh claiming roe It's a precedent, it's not exactly the complete story, anything that Senator Susan Collins or he is trying to tell you. In "confidential" emails so bravely released by Senator Cory Booker on Thursday, Kavanaugh argues that roe Actually is not established law and could be canceled at any time. "I'm not sure that all lawyers refer to roe as a well established law at the Supreme Court level since the Court can always override its precedent, and three judges of the Court do so, "he wrote in 2003.

As Kavanaugh's hearings continue, it is essential that we look at them and recognize them as the existential battle for the rights of women and the marginalized they are, and it is equally essential that we call our representatives every day. .

Allow yourself next week to see what lawmakers will then try in their endless mission to derail reproductive justice!

(picture: Drew Angerer / Getty Images)

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