That either are beyond that day any of this should be personally relevant notwithstanding.
The repeal of Roe v. Wade would result in tens of thousands of unwanted babies born to teens, the poor, the sick, the raped and the addicted.
And we know how Republicans treat children who are already born.
8
When this president is thrown out of office or resigns, it will be time for an actual progressive Democrat to be elected in 2020, along with a Democratic congress.
We have now struggled for over 50 years with a conservative Supreme Court that has become more right-wing fanatical every time a Republican appoints a justice. It will be time to enlarge the Court to 11 justices and get it over with.
I saw last night that Hillary Clinton is on the "short list" again. Whoever is making those lists needs to be fired, and fast.
1
I keep coming back to this fundamental question, whose body is it ?
6
I wouldn't count the these two women to save reproductive rights, health care etc. Trump and Republicans will dangle goodies for their home state and that will be that. i.e. what happened when Murkowski voted to raise taxes for oil drilling in her state. Unless these women become Democrats all is lost!
Over 30 years ago, when people thought in more depth than 140 characters, Carl Sagan and his wife Ann Druyan wrote "Is it Possible to be both Pro-Life and Pro-Choice." Worth re-reading now, you can find a copy at http://2think.org/abortion.shtml
1
We need to make this more than an issue about women and make it about men also. After all, short of complicated technologies like IVF, most babies still take two people to make.
Men, if you don't want your wages garnished for child support, a a child you would rather not have, nor your genetic material loose in the world, you need to support Roe v. Wade. Neither condoms nor birth control pills, even when used correctly and all the time, are not 100% fail-safe.
1
Trump's nominee will not admit he's out to kill abortion rights during the hearing, giving Murkowski & Collins an excuse to vote for him. It may take a few years to actually strangle the Roe v Wade ruling, so by the time it happens no one will remember how these 2 so-called moderates voted. Besides, it's more likely a few Democratic senators from purple & red states will go along with Trump's nominee. They won't even need Pence's vote. McConnell wins. Trump wins. America loses.
1
The reality is that women have depended on Roe too long. What women must do is to get the Equal Rights Amendment finally enacted. We do not have much time - there are plans underway to sponsor an amendment to the Constitution that will recognize the human rights of a developing fetus!!!! We all need to register more voters and vote this election.
5
I wish I were more optimistic they would do the right thing if only to delay this vote until after the election. But generally they vote along party lines and with the stakes so high they are politicians more concerned with keeping their job than weighing the dangers of their vote. A few Democrats are in the same position.
Unless their constituents rise up against stacking the court against women and minorities this is a done deal.
1
People never remember who gave them their rights but they will always remember who took them
4
Roe is less important for Trump than nominating a judge who’d defend him if he’d have to rely on the Supreme Court to bail him your.
American women are no longer intimidated by anti-abortion blather so best our outdated Republican Congress forget about it. In our secular society women will choose abortion when they want to and they will want to. You can be sure.
Any anti-abortion law will anyway prove expensively unenforceable. Abortion is here to stay
and doing it has always been possible. Better to make it safe and available, rather then let it fall into criminal hands.
4
And if they both resign, then what?
Hate to spoil it for you, but Collins and Murkowski will vote with the rest of their party. While Fox pushes fake news, liberal outlets like NYT and WaPo push non-news and could-be-news. They fill up their front page with speculation about fairy-tale impossibilities that might have a plausible iota of a chance of becoming reality in a completely different universe. First they denied Trump's ascendancy with fantastical notions that Cruz, Rubio or even Kasich might bring us back to some semblance of order and sanity. Then they clung to the hope that Republicans might consider an Obama court nominee if he was just conservative enough. Then came the endless "what if" scenarios where a handful of Republicans might have sabotaged Trump's reign, where Bannon's footsoldiers could have thrown a wrench into the GOP machinery by pushing things a bit too far, and finally the most laughable fantasy of all: the blue wave. Now we've completely gone off the deep end with the "Trump can't appoint a new judge while he's under criminal investigation" gambit. What we need is more coverage of the fights that Democrats can win. Low-profile state and local elections, lower court decisions, heated primaries to determine just what Trump's opposition actually stands for. I know this news isn't exciting enough. I know you just want to fill in the gaps of white space that occur when Trump hasn't said or done anything horrifying for a couple of days. But it's time to stop peddling fantasy.
2
Scare tactics, Roe is under no threat.
It really doesn’t matter what anti-abortion law the disgusting Republican Congress passes. American women today are not intimidated by religious blather when it comes to choosing their personal peace of mind. Besides they know religious hokum is often designed to control women.
Women of today who want an abortion will get one -law or no law— by hook or worse still by “crook.” But abortion will not go away and any law passed against it will be ignored and enforcement ludicrous.
3
We must uphold Rose vs Wade! Every woman should have the right to control their own bodies, men do. Every child should be a wanted child.
I am a woman who was unwanted. I heard constantly as child that I was unwanted, that I ruined my mother's life, and that I was unloveable. Did the drugs she took trying to abort me (abortions were illegal) harm me, who knows. I know that the pain, the emotional abuse, the neglect etc... did.
2
Very sad that only women care about women's rights.
2
Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, who all voted for Justice Gorsuch, have already met with President Trump. It's all over except for Democrat politician and left wing interest group fundraising.
1
McCaskill, Manchin and Donnelly are already been bribed. They did not have to attend the meeting with Trump. They did.
1
It defies all logic that old white men are STILL IN CHARGE of a women’s decisions about her body! And these are hypocritical old white men who have probably paid for more than one girlfriend’s, daughter’s, wife’s abortion. Please, my body, my choice.
4
#CATCHWHATMATTERS
MOST. In our neighborhood, they call it Plessy. In some communities, we've heard, they don't even teach it in the textbooks. However you came to find out about it, it's pretty-much agreed that it's the worst decision the Supreme Court ever made... for now. It's the law that passed 7 to 1 that reaffirmed a man named Homer Plessy, who was 1/8th Black (and looked white), to be forced to ride is a separate railroad car just because of the State Of Louisiana's Separate Car Act which was a legal form of segregation. The Supreme Court ruled that "separate but equal" was legal. And thus, at the time, fair. Ooops...
Check out our high school blog that displays various opinions, articles and news we think people should be informed about: https://www.catchhighschool.com/catchwhatmatters/
2
I am done. Let the conservatives rule. I am tired of it all. This country is not the country I grew up in, but a country that has let a greedy billionaire become president due to an antiquated system, the electoral college, which was created to give southern states leverage against northern states by having a slave count as 3/5 of a person. I am sick of women, blacks, Hispanics, you name it, if you are black, brown or female, you are a second class person in this country. We are one of the ten worst nations for women now, and it is just going to get worse with the Supreme Court debacle. Women are just incubators for republican men apparently. Well, I have had enough. I am looking for a job overseas and one that will be in a country that has state sponsored healthcare. I am done with the U.S. Goodbye. And, I am done with the Times.
1
So just because they have uteruses, they are supposed fall in line? smh
GOP "elites " and THEIR families/girlfriends : " Abortion for me, but NOT for thee ". The BEST hypocrites on Earth. Seriously.
5
What might happen if every women in the US refused to have sex with men in order to prevent needing an abortion.
That could be the perfect form of birth control. And provide real motivation for men to wake up and recognize that it's not their right to legislate such matters.
Boy oh boy.
Mewling Chuck (oh please Mitch, don't be a hypocrite.....)
better get in touch with Fightin' Harry Reid
and get some procedural ducklings lined up.......
Dear sen. Collins, years from now when you've retired from the senate, will you give your housekeeper the day off to attend the funeral of her granddaughter who died from of botched illegal abortion?
1
Does anyone seriously believe that the Roberts court is ever going to hear a case challenging Roe without the votes to keep it in place? (In 2003, asked about abortion, John Roberts (who can count to five) said that “Roe v. Wade is settled law.” **)
The Republican Establishment desperately needs Roe for its survival so that their politicians can secure the “pro-life” vote, whilst never having to take an impactful vote themselves. Without Roe, the forty states that still have abortion restrictions on its books would bring on a nationwide hand-to-hand combat that would shred the GOP.
They have a dirtier secret: minorities have an abortion incidence of three times that of whites. *** White Republican mothers will always know how to help their distressed daughters. But Republicans need Roe so those mills in Gary keep churning, precluding a minority voter tsunami, and a “blue” Indiana, twenty years hence.
A word to Senator McConnell: be careful what you wish for, and what you promise. And to the Republican faithful: Charlie Brown never did get to kick the football.
** www.ontheissues.org/Court/John_Roberts_Abortion.htm
*** www.guttmacher.org/infographic/2017/abortion-rates-race-and-ethnicity
Collins and Murkowski the last line of defense. G_D help us.
How any woman votes Republican is beyond me....I simply cannot believe these woman are that ignorant.....
1
Can we seriously talk about secession now? I've been saying it since November 2016, but I'm more serious than ever. I (and many others I know) am done with red states and the GOP, they are parasites on the blue counties & states, attempting to impose their medieval ways on the modern US.
1
Why can't corker and Flake vote 'NO' also. They've both said that Trump is dangerous, What's the hang-up?
7
They may not be running for reelection but they are surely not done with politics. They are party line cowards who just like the media attention from a pretense of disagreeing.
1
Roe v Wade will not be overturned.
Let the Democratic Senators hold the Judiciary candidates' (there could be more than one) feet close to the fire about how they would rule on Roe v Wade. But when all that will be done, whatever the outcome, Kennedy's vacant seat will be filled by a Trump favorite by January. And Roe will not be overturned.
Abortion rights however will continue to be chipped, no doubt.
Ireland passed a referendum on abortion, acknowledging that despite a strong religious background, the majority of people there understand and respect women's rights. Meanwhile, the "leader of the free world" takes us backwards. Charming.
11
No pressure or anything. It’s only the future wellbeing of countless Americans that rests in the balance.
5
Murkowski's trust that a nominee would consider Roe v Wade "settled law" and thus signal they would vote against overturning that ruling is no guarantee that they would not be an automatic vote for each and every state or even federal attempt to undermine or neuter the effect of Roe v Wade. We've seen this already in the Kennedy court, so getting an answer that affirmed Roe v Wade as "settled law" might feel good but it's not. Furthermore, every one of the recent GOP nominees to the court has given lip service to honoring precedent but once seated on the court has taken a wrecking ball to it when it suits him.
6
Unfortunately, the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court justices are a bit of kabuki theater, with candidates who know their lines well and speak in coded terms. And they refuse to answer too many questions with clarity, especially about hypothetical cases. But look, everyone knows where these candidates really stand based on who chose them and their track record.
Now if justices were not appointed for life -- serving 18-year terms, let's say, with one expiring every 2 years so every president gets to choose 2 -- they could be renominated and then held accountable for their votes on actual cases. This is an idea that legal scholars favor to bring more accountability to the Supreme Court.
8
My daughter and son-in-law waited to have kids until they were financially stable. Now they're ready. But we live in Michigan that has been very hostile to women's rights. Right to Life actually runs commercials about how women should be happy to raise their rapists child. My daughter is in her mid thirties and has had some heart issues in the past. My fear, perhaps unwarranted but never the less in the back of my mind, is what happens if she's late term and she has a health emergency? Will the anti-abortionists prevent saving her life? Because I'm a mother too and no one should have the legal right to sacrifice my child for her child.
11
There are NO "independent" Republican Senators or Representatives.
When progressive, or even non-reactionary, legislature depends on the votes of Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, such legislature is doomed...
4
Most Americans support legalized abortion in some form. Most Americans support tighter gun restrictions. The Democratic candidate won the popular vote in 4 out of the last 5 presidential elections, yet a Democrat occupied the white house only twice in those five elections. A Supreme court appointment was taken from a Democratic president and handed to a Republican president who failed to win the popular vote. I understand the concerns of the founding fathers with the 'tyranny of the majority,' but I think they got this wrong. The bigger threat to our nation concerns the tyranny of the minority.
8
Look. If Collins and Murkowski and any other so-called "moderate" Republicans were truly interested in putting country before party, they would become Democrats, or at least Independents. They have the power to change this entire debate but I'm betting they will simply vote as McConnell dictates.
This is not my country anymore.
9
@SMac
Mine, either. I was pretty much giving up and, this week, I have utterly abandoned any scintilla of hope.
Tragic.
NOT my president
1
Rich privileged women will still be able to get abortions. Conservative Christian Republican men will still be able to arrange safe and private abortions for their mistresses when needed.
Access is already severely limited for poor women, or even women of middle-class means. It already can mean driving one state over, to the one clinic in the neighboring state, on the one day of the week that clinic offers abortions, and paying out of pocket while dodging protesters. This is a medical procedure a woman should be able to do at her own hospital, in consultation with her own doctor, with her own insurance, for any reason. The left has done a poor job of defending abortion rights over the years, while the right-wing has steadily eroded popular support with dramatic and often untruthful messaging, violence, and increasingly audacious laws at the state and local level. It already might as well be illegal for the number of poor women who cannot get an abortion when they need one. Meanwhile the hypocrites who claim to be all about children and families vote to gut the social safety net, destroy the schools, pollute the environment, increase guns in our communities, start wars, and put children in cages. Seems like embryos are very important to them but human life not so much.
11
What's worse is that when Senators Murkowski and Collins when the vote the party line as they have done before, will in casting their votes knowing very well the devastation and suffering that it it will cause poor and working class women.
After they showed their party loyalty their reputations will be mud and they will regret those votes as long as they lived: because the people that they represent will be paying a horrific price.
People should be asking these senators after they stabbed their pro choice voters in the back if they will be removing all the mirrors in their homes. Stop playing games with women. If you intend attack their rights and privacy tell them that you a Republicans and can't help your selves or come right out if you stand for women's rights say so and pledge to vote accordingly.
1
The "Sacrament of the Women's movement", the right of women to kill babies in their womb, may very well be challenged. Not because of moral concerns, but because Roe v Wade is a states' rights issue and the Court had no jurisdiction upon which to take the case.
Says the man who will never be pregnant.
Of course since you feel so strongly about this you're all in favor of affordable contraception and health care right? And you've had a vasectomy?
4
Always wondered what would have happened if S Ct had not decided Roe v. Wade. I have never read that decision and been persuaded in a penumbral right to privacy in the US Constitution.
My guess is that, absent Roe v. Wade, more women would have engaged politically to ensure the passage of legislation ensuring a woman's right to abortion. And these women would not have been tolerant of pro-life candidates. Protecting choice legislatively, rather than judicially, would have been broader-based and led to longer-lasting structural changes in social and other issues.
Maybe now we'll get to witness that process play itself out. Like it or not, the S Ct is lurching to the right. The question right now is whether it will be driven right by a partisan hack or someone like Roberts, who, tho conservative, is still a principled jurist.
2
Give me a break. Really? I can't stop laughing.
Trump is under criminal investigations. Peoplel around him have pleaded guilty. He MUST NOT be able to appoint a Justice who would then rule on his own case. NO WAY!
5
The supreme court does not rule in criminal trials. It is an appellate court!
Nearly 60% of Americans believe that abortion should be legal in most cases. Not surprisingly, about 40% of Americans think that abortion should be illegal in most or all cases. But it's not personal opinions that really matter with abortion. It is practicality and personal choice. An abortion ban might sound like a dream come true to some people. But some of those same people will one day suffer a life threatening pregnancy and be told, "If you don't terminate this pregnancy NOW, you will die. You will die and you will leave your other children motherless." Is that a dream come true, too? I assure you it is not being that I survived this nightmare. I have never met anyone who has "Get an abortion" on their bucket list. I have never asked anyone, "What are you doing this weekend?" and had them respond, "Oh, having an abortion. I make sure to have two or three per year because they are so much FUN." The threat of outlawing abortion will mobilize voters, that is certain, but maybe not how the so-called prolifers think.
3
We'll see who these women are loyaly to: the GOP and MCConnell/Trump, or American women and looking out for their rights. I have a feeling, that politics will prevail and they'll bend under pressure to remain loyal to Trump and the Republican party. They have up until now and I don't see any change in their future actions. Their talk is cheap. Gutless, spineless, corrupt politicians. How the public keeps on voting for them is dumbfounding to me.
7
Commenters debate this as if there two sides. Fact is America is a country with no standard healthcare, endless fanatic gun deaths, dwindling abortion civil rights for women, skyrocketing debt, marginalized minorities, and a government antagonistic to science but in thrall to old time religion. It's pseudo third world in America. Who are the people supporting this Darwinian view?
Anti-abortion laws are a complete waste of time and government money. As a result of such law Only uneducated minorities will have more babies and Republicans absolutely HATE minorities. The rest of us so-called whities will have abortions via agreeable doctors or on trips elsewhere.
Like the 2oth century infamous Prohibition liquor law., anti-abortion laws will be ignored except by underground criminals who will make a bundle.
Furthermore the law will prove unenforceable since the public will openly oppose it and the police will be unaable to find the “culprits” and then at very great government expense.
A waste of money, time and an incursion on women’s rights. Old Republican “Christians”? don’t make babies anymore and should stay out of modern women’s sex lives. The time men suppressed women is over. OVER and done! Forget the religious excuse.
Wont work in a secular society.
Time the government became practical and accepted the 21st century as has the rest of Europe.
13
Stepford Wives of the GOP Senate. Seriously.
5
We all should write Susan and Lisa and beg them not to support a right-wing, pro-life candidate. Amen.
3
Abortion will not go away. It will simply go underground. And it will remain fairly safe, as medical care has advanced since the 1960’s. Too bad my great/x3 grandmother had to die from a self induced abortion after having five other children. She must have been quite desperate.
4
Trump could nominate Vladimir Putin to our supreme court and the republicans would not fight him. This country is doomed. I cant wait to see the first woman incarcerated for using birth control. Now we know their plan for replacing Mexican agriculture workers, American kids in abject poverty.
9
say goodbye to a woman's right to choose.
1
Why no pressure on Sen. Gardner of Colorado and Sen. Heller of Nevada - both states voted for Hillary Clinton and have pro-choice Governors. Let's go Coloradans and Nevadans, crank it up.
11
And just this month, Ireland finally voted to allow abortions.
6
That's right ladies. This is not a pleasant situation. No more slow pitch softballs. We are talking 90 mph hard- balls, curve balls and sliders. So dig in.
2
Unfortunately, neither has stuck to their guns as much as they get credit for. Still bullied by GOP old white men at crucial votes.
3
The last line of defense if the American voter. Republicans broke through that line in 2016, and it's up to us to reform that line. Voting in November is our only hope. We can't simply keep hoping for our Democrat Congressmen and women to save us without giving them the support they need to do their jobs.
3
There was already a wave election... in 2016. We won , you lost... it's called the will of the people.
1
Roe was issued too long ago, if we consider how science and medicine have progressed since then. Also, the situation of single mothers and women in general has changed significantly. Perhaps it is time for a thorough review.
1
Changed how? Last I checked children are still expensive to raise.
Do Senators Heitkamp, Donnelly and Manchin really think keeping their jobs is more important than voting against a retrograde judicial nominee who will set women's rights back a half century? If so, they are mistaken.
6
The article and the comments seem to be ignoring the elephant in the room - the role of religion in this fight. And the elephant is mostly Christian.
The Christian right has been very, very patient and absolutely relentless over many decades and I greatly fear they are winning. They need to impose religion on everyone in this country and they take a very VERY long view.
Little by litte, one tiny step at a time, they are taking over and we are all in grave danger.
And the real irony is, their leader is an amoral, immoral, unprincipled non-Christian.
15
I went to a demo and semimar, on Houston St over 40 years ago, involving period extraction when I was a young teenager. I took along a friend who, every month found herself in agony for 4 days and couldn't even get to school due to the pain. We thought this was a "breakthrough" - but the procedure is STILL banned because the religious "right" found it too similar in their crazy minds to abortion due to the fact that it was done by suction. Even in that instance we are not able to have separation of of church and state and these nutjobs impose their paranoid their puritanical ignorance, arrogance, and perverse punishments. IT's been over 40 years! 40 years! And to Bernie fans who did not bother to vote - you really need to stop pretending that it's everyone else who was "myopic" in scope and narrow-minded. Prevention in this instance was better than "cure" and and we're at 2 steps forward 1 step back in large part because of of YOUR puritanical lack of foresight. 40 years - clean up your act, we need you.
3
With Gorsuch, Trump was under pressure to adhere to the recommendations of his republican/conservative "advisors". He was newly elected, feeling his oats, unsteady on his feet. Not so any longer: he's energized, he's empowered, he can do and say anything he wants. As he told his base the other night: it's absolutely true that I can do whatever I want without losing votes: oh, the cheering that ensued.
Thus, you can expect Trump will pick the most radical right-wing reactionary he can find in order to punch his fist in the face of the Dems and the anti-trumpers: his cult with love it. It's his moment to shine his brightest in front of the NRA, the Bible Trumpers and anti-immigrant fear-ridden mob he's created. Trump's corporate base doesn't care about the "social issues" and know that any right-wing judge will give them what they want.
And if Trump gets any flak from his "advisors" he will simply schedule a rally a day and pound on the Dems. His "advisors" will lower their heads (not in shame but on their way to a nod of acceptance/agreement) as Trump uses God, Fear, Flag and Military to slay those too clueless to recognize his greatness.
Trump is King and his favorite pastime is burning Dems at the stake, grinning as they scream, running around with their hair on fire.
Trump can no longer be said to be unpredictable in what he does, and he is so predictable in how he will do it.
4
A word or two for Senators Heitkamp, Donnelly, and Manchin (and any other Democratic senators thinking of abandoning the rights of the female half of their constituency):
The upcoming vote on Trump's nominee for Supreme Court Justice should be your political "hill to die on." You will not cast a more important vote in your career. Side with Trump and go down in history as a public servant too scared of losing a later election to do the job required. Side with women's rights, and you will be revered as a champion of humanity. What do you have to lose? You are poised between losing a job and losing your integrity.
And as for anyone who thinks my use of "humanity" is misplaced when speaking of abortion or reproductive rights, your energy would be better served to place value on children after they leave the womb, also, not merely while they are in utero.
5
I think that your use of "humanity" is misplaced when speaking of abortion, which is not the same as the all-encompassing "reproductive rights", and you probably know that, and I do not appreciate others dictating to me where my energy would be better served. It's for me as a woman to decide that.
Fern - Decide for yourself all you want but it's not your place to decide what other people should do when it comes to their health care decisions.
They will not block the nominee provided he or she has not spoken about the issue explicitly. Then, as soon as he or she gets on the court you can rest assured that the new judge will have a new and sudden opinion on abortion invoking 14th amendment protection for the unborn embryo even if it is being carried by a 14 year old rape/incest victim or a 57 year old who thought she was post menopausal. And then America will go back In time like one of those patriarchal societies that Trump says he hates.
3
People who care about the abortion issue are tools. On both sides. It affects fewer people than poison ivy. And it’s just as easy to prevent.
Whether you are pro life or pro choice, I urge you to make different choices and get a life of your own. Thank you for reading.
4
Savita Halappanavar did the opposite of getting a life, through no choice of her own. Anti-choice puts lives in danger.
4
It would be easy to say, "So what? Overturning Roe will only affect Red states", but the anti-choice zealots won't stop there. The next step by Republicans will be a federal law to make abortion illegal everywhere under all circumstances.
4
It will be interesting to see if the nominee will answer questions about their view on abortion. After all, that is the sole qualification according to trump and the trumanistas. Most likely they will follow the gorsuch model - pretend to be too stupid to understand the question.
3
Collins and Murkowski will tow the line, Roe is gone.
6
I think, and I fear, that the time is fast approaching when civil disobedience will have to become the new normal. Not instead of fighting for our rights, but in addition to those efforts, we are going to have to create networks of solidarity that rely on wide and deep increases in individuals' knowledge and competence. We are going to have to learn how to make and use safe abortifacients at home and protect each other for their use. We're already learning to grow and distribute healthy food under the radar of the ag interests. We will have to become much more actively protective of immigrants, workers, LGBTQ people, all other minorities this administration and its national and global supporters are so determined that we fear and exclude. Like the women's health movement of pre-Roe v Wade days, we'll have to learn to create and navigate new structures partly above and partly underground. Technology will help, but it will also hamper. The point is that we are about to have to either surrender our rights or uphold each other's rights, recognizing solidarity as an obligation. The US experiment in government of, by and for the people is about to be effectively sabotaged by the right-wing minority - not in self-defense, but with intent to foreclose all options to disagree and make workable and respectful compromises. We're about to enter a new world, and we need to prepare.
2
So while Ireland votes to legalize abortion and move into modernity, America votes to go back to the Dark Ages.
18
Progressives sound like Chicken Little, "The sky is falling, the sky is falling!"
Why not wait and see who will be nominated before getting hysterical?
1
Don't patronize us. We have every right to be concerned. I no longer trust the men in this country to care about anything but lowering their taxes.
1
Senators Collins and Murkowski aren’t exactly what I would call courageous leaders. They talk a good game, but then they vote the Trump line. I would say Flake and Corker but they too talk the anti-Trump thing but vote the Trump GOP line. There’s not a lot of courage in today’s GOP. The amazing thing to me is that 51 Republican Senators will let a legally-challenged President nominate this Justice. Who among us believes that this choice will be about ideology alone? Does anyone really think it’s impossible to find a nominee who will tell Trump in private that, yes, he/she believes a President cannot be indicted while in office? That a President cannot obstruct justice? What’s happened up to this point has sullied 2 branches of government. Now we’ll have the trifecta.
8
McConnell used to be a reasonable, humane Republican, too. According to his biographer, in the 1970s when he ran for county executive McConnell "worked effectively behind the scenes to protect abortion rights locally."
Since then McConnell's values have changed and instead of fighting for issues he believes in he throws them into the nearest dumpster in a naked effort to win elections and hold power.
This will be the test: will lawmakers protect the lives of the daughters, sisters, mothers and wives who are already part of the fabric of our lives? Or with they subvert their values and kow-tow to religious extremists who say that every single fertilized egg must be born?
4
The real question is whether there is room for something else between the two poles commonly presented in these arguments.
These Senators will not oppose their party regarding any judge, count on that. They have many other concerns which will require the support of the rest of the Republicans, so the will let it go.
3
They will not vote against the party this time. Democrats wanting to stay in the race will also join the gop to save favor with trump. When one wants power, they will turn on their own party to stay in power. Citizens rights will be gone in a few months.
4
If Senator Collins thinks Roe v. Wade is settled law and therefore won't be overturned, she should read today's NYTimes editorial on the Court's recent decision regarding public sector unions. Overturned: a 41-year-old unanimous Supreme Court decision that had been upheld several times since it was handed down in 1977.
Senator Collins won re-election in 2014 by 68% to 32%. She has a lot of support from moderates of both parties and from independents. Like Murkowski, she isn't beholden to the Republican Party. She lost some support with her vote for the budget and will lose a lot more if she accepts a conservative nominee from Trump, regardless of how she justifies it.
McConnell insisted that Scalia's replacement be another Scalia. Following his lead, Collins, Murkowski and Democrats should insist that Kennedy's replacement be someone who will occupy the swing position. A balanced Supreme Court is in all our interests.
6
The Supreme Court ruled for individual liberty. Why should anyone be forced to join any organization against their will?
1
2/3 of abortions are because they "can't afford a baby right now".
Legislate leave for new mothers so they don't have to choose between having another child or losing the job that feeds and shelters the ones they already have.
Instead of cutting benefits for poor families, increase them.
These acts will do much, much more to prevent abortions than overturning Roe v. Wade.
4
Better yet make sure women have access to affordable contraception, health care and education, all things that cut down on unwanted pregnancies.
12
Better yet use some personal responsibility and don't have sex until you can afford contraception. I'm a woman writing this (Ian's wife).
Ian's wife - As a woman you should know a bit more about contraception, like the fact that it can fail sometimes. Get a clue.
I have to believe that neither Collins or Murkowsky want to go down in history as women who were responsible for stripping other women of their reproductive rights.
I’m still trying to grapple with the fact that this is even happening in 2018. What a travesty.
13
This is the result of the appeasement by democrats to Republicans. How the dems are able to lose argument after argument to these hypocrites is stunning. They don't want women to have abortions but block access to birth control. They require you give birth but good luck feeding and clothing that child. The Republicans' blatantly laughable hypocrisy is of a scale worthy of a Monty Python movie.
11
Don't bet on Collins and Murkowski. They'll only vote to protect Roe if they know their votes will be offset by Manchin, Heitkamp and McCaskill.
4
If Roe v. Wade is overturned, abortion will still be legal. It will simply return to the states -- where it belongs.
4
Most states will move quickly to make abortion illegal. They’re already doing the best they can to make it difficult, if not impossible, to obtain. Why should a basic human right belong to the states? It shouldn’t. Access to a basic human right - control of what happens to one’s body - should not be dependent on the state in which one resides. What short memories we have!
7
Did you know that slavers outlawed contraception so that their female slaves would multiply their wealth? That is why there is such a strong southern state movement to ban abortion; it's a relic of slavery, a consequence of regarding women and their offspring as property of men. The question is, do we fight to preserve the right for poor women in red states like we fought to spare them from slavery? Or do we let the descendants of slavers and traitors in red states force them to give birth?
4
That's democracy in action. The decision would be made by duly elected representatives in each state capital.
Roe is done.
Women will begin to die again because of botched backstreet abortions.
What is wrong with this country?
Why are we going backwards so rapidly?
10
How long before the Radical Right Wing subpoenas the records of all abortion clinics to bring murder charges against the woman that used their servise.
12
No matter how nimbly D senators try to make Supreme Court appointment vote delay about conflict of interest for the President or anything else, they will not be able to avoid the abortion question. Rs are fired up about it.
Face it head on. Use the truth. Making it illegal does not prevent abortions, it only makes them unsafe. It is not an optional activity.
The ONLY way to actually prevent abortions is to make alternatives viable: Expand both access to birth control and financial support for impoverished families. These methods work. Nothing else does.
7
If men could be pregnant, there would be no discussion about eliminating Roe vs Wade! The same could be said for any elected Republican's wife who got pregnant at a later age, and didn't want another child.
The hypocrisy of it all!
9
If only guns preformed safe abortions, we would have constitutional protections. Guns are so lucky that men care for their rights.
1
May I suggest condoms for safety and Plan B One-Step Emergency Contraceptive.
Cheaper than flights to Canada and Cuba.
4
Wait until One-Step Emergency Contraceptives are banned from being sold!
9
In general that's a good idea but that doesn't help anyone who has a planned pregnancy that goes wrong and in cases where someone's birth control method (e.g. the pill) fails they don't find out until it's too late for Plan B.
3
Dear NYT:
This is a sensationalistic -- nearly hysterical -- take on the odds that Roe v Wade will be overturned if Trump gets his nominee confirmed. Justice Roberts has called it settled law, and conservatives are loathe to act contrary to stare decisis, and particularly when the culture has largely accepted the core compromise (establishing the notion of viability as the trigger for allowing state action).
This article seems designed to whip up even more anti-Trump fervor and empower the Resistance. Please find a Supreme Court reporter who is not pushing an obvious political agenda.
9
You might think the article is sensational, but with Trump and the Republicans there is a good change that this historic decision could be reversed!
10
I find it hard to believe that women's reproductive rights are up for grabs in a so-called western democracy in 2018. This is preposterous and would be unthinkable if men were able to get pregnant and/or women were truly equal. Shameful. The land of the free? Maybe if you're white and male. Otherwise, not so much. What's next? Resurrecting the Salem witch trials?
6
Sadly,we older New Yorker's who were around as kids at the end of World war 2 have to once again find tension in our breathing from the thought of losing human civil liberties since
Trump & Co. have stolen the spotlight in all worldwide news media ,"What will he do next" ? is not funny anymore.
9
I find it hard to believe that women, even Republican women, will sit silently and let another right-wing conservative have a seat on the highest court in the land. They, too, have abortions, for the same reasons all women do.
This isn't over "until the fat lady sings."
6
Literally, everything does come from the womb, even in politics. Electing egg layers would certainly simplify things.
1
Well, they're still with the GOP. AND their daughters can afford a trip to Canada. So I'm not going to bet on these two. It's hard to believe these days that Repubcans EVER believed in autonomous decisions and an individual right to make choices. I'm just waiting for the day at this point when Trump will discover that Herman Goering designed his own uniforms and adapt them for himself. I'm sick of the entire GOP's COWARDICE. Think of how little it would take for them to have been morally outraged and called for Obama's impeachment. I'm done with relying on them for anything. Vote them out.
7
Republicans can never be trusted to do anything right for the people of the United States.
T-Rump and his right-wing authoritarian Catholic Supreme Court will take away the rights of women to sovereignty over heir own bodies, and perhaps even rights to contraception. The Republic of Gilead will be upon us.
Wealthy women will be able to go to Canada or Europe for abortions, while poor women will be forced to bear unplanned and unwanted children and consequences of rape, and the children will grow up poor and become social problems, all the better to fill the prisons and maintain the huge prison-law enforcement complex. The USA will be like the Soviet Union with its gulags. The American experiment is over and the people did it to themselves.
5
The Democrats should just quit now. And women should face it: your body is not your own. The Republican Senate owns your bodies.
3
Not a chance, they'll both for whoever the king chooses.
5
These two women do not stand a chance. Trump and McConnell will pull out the full arsenal. It won't be pretty or nice. Threats will be the least of their problems. These two men will pound and pummel them until they get what they want.
4
Of course the fate of an SC decision matters more to some people than the lives of the unborn.
2
Of course the "unborn" mean more than the lives of Women. Fixed it for you. Seriously.
7
"Lives of the Unborn"... vreat name for an aftrrnoon TV soap opera.
5
Destination abortions: Canada and Cuba. Planned Parenthood should start working with the airlines and the clinics in Canada and Cuba.
4
There should be total outrage that the lives of woman are being decimating by men. We can now be legally given false medical information. Why isn't that malpractice? Now our right to birth control and our bodies is no longer in our hands. I'm beyond disgusted with this country. We're is the idea of equal opportunity for all? Where is self determination? Why is is that pro-birth is more important than pro-life - meaning feeding those who don't have enough, housing them, clothing them, educating them. The so-called pro-life movement is a misnomer!
7
Collins and Murkowski will fold like a cheap suit.
5
The majority of American support choice, and even those on the other side will concede to extreme circumstances. It is only a madly howling minority, the one that gets all the airtime, that wants to completely restrict abortion.
It would be crazy for Collins and Murkowsky to join those ranks and put themselves on that pyre.
6
Collins and Murkowski might use some time on the Senate floor to express mild misgivings about the ultimate nominee's stance on overturning Roe versus Wade, but they certainly will vote along party lines. These days the moderate wing of the GOP is a myth dreamed up centrist pundits. The reality is that the party's political fortunes have only improved since it shifted from conservative/libertarian principles to abject Trumpist crackpotism, conspiracy theory driven policy, and theocracy. Accordingly, Trump is only considering jurists who are regarded as extremists by the majority of the legal community.
The new SCOTUS will overturn Roe v. Wade quickly. Conservatives have long made the case that stare decisis is inapplicable. If states rights becomes an issue Republicans will make abortion a federal crime. Because even right wingers understand that forbidding abortion doesn't actually eliminate the practice --it just makes the safe, medical procedures illegal-- Republicans will begin pass related laws, such as requirements for women to report miscarriages to the state (this has already been proposed). There will be no exceptions for rape or incest because conservatives believe women will lie (remember "legitimate rape"?). It won't take long for the first American woman to get the death penalty for having an abortion. Her execution will be cheered by "pro-lifers."
2
The best comment I've ever read about Senator Collins is "She votes the right way when it doesn't matter and the wrong way when it does."
7
When Roe is overturned, can individual states make their own decisions? Could women’s reproductive health remain the law of the land of California?
2
If there's an "R" after their name, forget it.
This is Lock-Steppers "R" Us we're talking about.
5
Let's see how much of a "Maverick" (as the NYTimes wanted us to believe in their puff piece about her) Murkowski will be now?
7
It's very sad that we democrats can't get it together. It has nothing to do with being on the right or left of the party it's about caring about key principals. Women's Rights, Minority Right's, The Right to Collective Bargaining. These are now all gone and your not going to get them back for 40 years.
6
To any red-state Democratic Senator even thinking about voting for whomever Trump nominates.
Don't.
You may gain a few Republican votes by doing so, but you will lose far more Democratic votes.
After all, if you're going to vote to support a GOP Supreme Court nominee, we mind as well just let you be replaced by a GOP Senator in November.
7
Shame on our nation.
Shame.
Shame
The Supreme Court has been bought and paid for, largely by the Catholic Church.
10
Add the Evangelical church to the till.
5
If the Republicans want an anti-abortion justice confirmed then they will get one, and so Roe v Wade is unlikely to survive. Shame on Kennedy for helping to engineer its demise.
6
Many of us have not taken seriously enough the threat to Roe v Wade. If abortion becomes illegal, we return to the days of alley abortions, of deaths due to botched jobs, of unwanted births many of which will lead to abuse and neglect. As the saying goes, if you don't like abortion, don't have one. Putting so many women at risk—any woman of child-bearing age whose birth control fails, for example—is an egregious crime. It is incredible that the majority of the country supports keeping abortion legal and yet, we've ended up with a government that has the power to take away that right. If all those who believed in keeping abortion legal voted, we wouldn't be having this problem.
11
Pro life as in pro military assault weapons for all?
9
I can just hear Senator Collins - she will ask the nominee whether Roe v Wade is the law of the land and will receive a yes answer. The nominee will then offer to sell her the Brooklyn Bridge.
8
"Settled law" isn't any reassurance that Roe will survive. It doesn't protect the law; rather it makes Roe a fat target. The Left still seems incapable of grasping the raw fact: the Right wants to scorch the earth where Roe ever held sway. For decades they've embraced the terminology of violence. They have legal sanction for it almost in their grasp. They want to take revenge on behalf of all the victims of what they insist is murder. And they'd kill the people whom they feel were responsible for legal abortion.
A rhetoric of fury has been the Right's golden goose since Goldwater. They used to know enough to modulate it. Trump saw that the base voters were sick of being asked for patience and good behavior so he unleashed the truth for them and about them: they hate for pleasure, like Trump does. They will revel in the pain of the people they loathe. All they ask from Trump is targets and permission.
This paper like most of the would-be responsible media still comments on this with detached surprise, as though you're scientists at a telescope watching a volcano on the moon. You think you're in an America you recognize; what you don't recognize you don't see.
9
The war is over. Conservatives and Republican policies won,Liberals and leftist Democrats lost. The presidency, Senate, House, most Governors, State legislatures and soon the courts are pro life.... period
Why is the whole tone and whining by this article against the clearly expressed will of the people through their elected officials?
There was a wave election... in 2016...get used to it.
2
Because you're wrong. The last two republican presidents reached high office through chicanery and fraud, and republicans have used any and every underhanded scheme they can think of to force their narrowminded beliefs on this country. I give them credit for raising the politics of divisiveness to an art, and then perfecting it. But if you think that gives you credibility as a governing party you're dead wrong. The pendulum has swung your way for now, but it inevitably swings back. That rebound will come hard and fast. Count on it.
7
Murkowski and Collins have proven to be reliable Republicans, party over country. Both will vote to confirm whatever extreme right wingnut that Heritage and Federalist come up with. Remember the tax scam?
6
Why couldn't the Dems just call for a quorum and not vote present? the Constitution specifically requires 51 Senators to do anything.
4
The old adage "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it" is true.
Once enough Trump/Bernieorbust/Stein/Johnson.Non-voters have buried loved ones, there will be sufficient pressure to change. But another generation of women, mostly poor, will be sacrificed.
It is so sad that it will literally take dead bodies for the far-left and the independents to grasp the necessity of compromise, futility of purity tests and the mendacity of the Trumpist right.
5
The nominee will be chosen because he (tell me it won't be a white "he") is thought to be solid on overturning Roe. It would be inappropriate for him to state what he will do in the confirmation proceedings. Then, we will just have to wait and see what he does. That's about all there is to do here. No one knows completely for sure. But the party of stability and continuity sure seems intent on tearing the country apart.
2
Wealthy Republican women will still have access to abortion and every other health care need, even if Roe v Wade is overturned.
Over 90% of pregnant women, upon discovering their fetus has Down Syndrome, choose to abort the pregnancy. It is statistically impossible that all of those women are Democrats.
Wealthy women will also have the privilege of choice.
8
Yesterday, I saw a clip on T.V. of hall-way interview with Sen. Collins. She was asked about her position on a nominee upholding Roe v. Wade. Sen. Collins responded by saying that she meets with all Supreme Court nominees and asks them whether they will adhere to judicial precedent. She then said that to her, Roe v. Wade is settled law.
First, every nominee would answer "yes" to a question on adhering to judicial precedent. Since she feels Roe v. Wade is settled law, she implies that any nominee who will adhere to judicial precedent will uphold Roe v. Wade. Second, if you follow Sen. Collins reasoning, then Gorsuch will uphold Roe v. Wade since she voted for him. Third, In her response to the reporter's question, Sen. Collins said she asks a general rather than a specific question to the nominee concerning upholding Roe v. Wade. Based on her comments to the reporter, I have to conclude Sen. Collins is not a bulwark against a nominee who will overturn Roe v. Wade.
3
I'm a centrist who is disgusted with Trump and the Republican Party. But I'm about fed up with the Left's obsession with abortion. How many of you are even aware that overturning Roe vs. Wade does not outlaw abortion in the US? It gives power to the states, where it belongs. As repulsed as I am with the Right in this country, the Left need to start respecting that every issue they find so important isn't within the purview of the federal government. Roe vs. Wade has ruined our national politics for 40 years and is (in no small way) responsible for buffoons like Trump gaining power on the Right. I don't believe even a conservative Supreme Court will overturn this atrocity of a decision, but the nation would be better off if this issue went back to the states.
3
There's nothing like a few hundred thousand women (and men) in the streets all around the country to get the attention of our representatives. Or letters or phone calls or emails or texts or voices.
11
Let's get real, folks. Here is how this will go down.
1.Murkowski and Collins will be "allowed" to vote against the nominee.
2. Heidcamp, Manchin. McCaskill, and probably Tester will not dare to vote against the nominee for fear of losing their Senatorial seats.
3. Net result: The nominee will be approved by one or two votes.
4. The nominee can only be defeated if those Red-State Democrats vote against the nominee AND Murkowski and/or Collins (maybe Flake) also vote against the nominee.
5. BUT if the net effect is that the Red State Democrats lose their seats--even just one of them--the Senate will remain in Republican hands.
6. Then Trump will put up despicable nominee #2, who will be confirmed by the Senate, having a larger Republican majority.
Folks, there is no way out of this barring some kind of political earthquake that rejects the nominee and then eliminates Ted Cruz or other Republicans in Red States in the election. This is so remote a possibility that it would be considered a major miracle.
The best patriotic Americans who want to protect our nation from rampant fascism can do is to try and at least capture the House and start to build a legislative wall that will prevent the newly radicalized SCOTUS from rendering alt-Right laws from the bench. This will have to be a sustained effort, since we are going to have an utterly radicalized court until long after most of us are dead.
11
We need #MeToo to come to the abortion fight - women sharing their stories of getting pregnant because birth control failed or because they were raped or because they were very young and their school forbade sex ed so they didn't learn how to avoid pregnancy, or even just because we are human and sometimes we forget to be careful while in the throes of passion. Time to share stories until the screams of the religious right are drowned by us, the majority. Remember Ireland. We need to be as vocal as they were to overturn the overturn.
15
"Just because we are human and sometimes we forget to be careful while in the throes of passion"-----This is the thing that gives the right to life side a legitimate argument. Birth control by abortion. Abortion is supposed to be to save the life of the mother or because of incest or rape. Even to save the emotional strain of childbirth on a victim. Not just because we are human and forgot to use birth control. This is the real voice of the people who want it to remain legal. All the rest is hyperbole. This is the really what they are all saying between the lines, "I want to be able to abort my baby if I forget to be responsible or just choose not to be responsible." How about if you choose to get pregnant you must have your baby but can choose for responsible parents to raise the child as their own? Sounds fair enough. We would not have to worry about preaching about birth control. If women and girls knew they would have to go through child birth I wonder if they would choose to be responsible and safe?
Abortion IS birth control. Only if you believe the nonsensical idea that a zygote or an embryo is the same thing as a self-aware human being can you see any moral difference between the two. If I have sex and use contraception, the baby that could have resulted from my actions will not be born. If I have sex and my contraception fails or I forgot to use it, ditto. In both cases, the virtual baby won’t come into being. So if you are opposed to abortion, you must be opposed to contraception as well. Or just be honest and say that you are opposed to women enjoying sex.
1
If anyone is pinning their hopes on Collins and Murkowski to truly buck the status quo in a way that would indicate having a shred of real integrity, they haven't been paying attention to what they've been up to these past few years. One vote on healthcare in no way exonerates them from their complicity in mostly fall in line with Trump rather than calling him out on the compassionless administration he is cruelly commandeering.
7
While obvious that there has been, and is, an abortion litmus test for Supreme Court nominees, the practice remains deeply disturbing, Fair, responsible jurists never prejudge any case. In any hearing on their candidacy they should, and do, refuse to answer hypothetical questions. The standard for Supreme Court Justices is an impeccable knowledge of the law, equanimity, fairness and understanding their role as jurists, not legislators. Mr. Schumer's refusal to consider any one of the 25 stellar candidates listed by President Trump is indefensible to anyone interested in Equal Justice Under the Law, which is blind and to be applied without reference to race, creed, gender, religion, etc. Outcomes oriented partisans, on the other hand, want a guaranteed vote on the Court instead of a fair legal scholar. That being the case, why have hearings? If all but 2 or 3 Senators have predetermined how they will vote on any given Justice then what's the point? Why not instead create a questionnaire covering the essential topics of concern, have the potential jurists complete the questionaire and then vote depending on their responses? Also, to determine the impact of the hearings on each Senators Vote, have a preliminary vote on each candidate before the hearings and then have a final vote after the hearings and see whose mind was changed.
But stonewalling the first black president for no other reason then flat out bigotry was just fine, right?
2
I hope these senators take a stand for women instead of being remembered for an eternity as the women senators who voted for their corrupt party instead of the rights women have fought so hard for. Will they do the right thing or throw women into the lion cages?
6
The "Litmus Test" will not be Roe v Wade, but "Can the president pardon himself."
5
These two will do what every other GOP person does....fold like a cheap tent.
4
There is a wonderful precedent for Senator Collins right in her home state of Maine. On June 1, 1950 freshman Senator Margaret Chase Smith in her now legendary “Declaration of Conscience” became the first Republican Senator to denounce Senator Joseph McCarthy on the Senate Floor. Her detractors called her a Communist. The people of Maine approved of their courageous young Senator and sent her back for 23 consecutive years. In 1964 she became the first woman to be placed in nomination for the presidency.
7
Expect another biased white male who wants to return to some ancient time. Until about 1880, abortions were not criminalized in the U.S. and even the Catholic Church accepted them until after quickening occurred, which was months later than the current fanatical view of life beginning at conception. https://www.cnn.com/2016/06/23/health/abortion-history-in-united-states/...
Women even on the Supreme Court have been marginalized, as seen in the recent decision on not letting medical advice on abortions be given at the so-called crisis pregnancy centers. As in Texas where maternal deaths rose to third world levels after closing licensed women's health centers, this will results in unnecessary deaths.
Life is not what matters to the zealots. Women's health doesn't matter. It is about forcing their narrow view of religion on all women in the country, and it is about denying women the right to make decisions about their own health, bodies, and futures.
Fewer than 20% of Americans believe there should be no abortion rights. But then between 80% to 90% believe there should be universal background checks on guns and other gun safety laws. Some 80% of Americans believe that Dreamers should be protected, and more than 70% believe that immigrant children should not be separated from their families.
When a political party controls government and imposes views that are opposed by some 80% of Americans, how is this representative democracy? It is theocracy.
17
Well, once they take away birth control, perhaps less people will vote for Republicans. Until then, suffer suckers. You get what you asked for.
4
I am a man. I will never have the need for an abortion. I really don't care if Roe is overturned and abortion becomes illegal. I really don't. I don't care because apparently women don't care. You don't care. I don't care. Trump made it perfectly clear he would do all he could to overturn Roe v. Wade since day one! And yet so many women in this country just could not get past their Hatred of All Things Hillary! 53% of white women voted for the nutjob and a bare majority of college educated women went with Clinton, 51%. Like I said, you don't care. I don't care.
9
Maybe we should be the ones wearing Melania's jacket! You are not wrong.
1
Very very scary disheartening stomach churning gut punching. But true.
1
Let's hear a SINGLE male Republican senator declare opposition to the list of potential nominees. Flake? Corker? Anyone?!? Where are you??
Crickets...
8
The question these judicial nominees need to be asked is not about Roe per se but about whether a woman is a "person" and a "citizen" as these terms are used throughout the Constitution (the word "man" isn't even in the document except in one use in nonoperative langauge) and whether state level constitutions that grant rights to "men" and deny them to women violate the 14th Amendment (states that do this include NY and CA). The nominees won't answer the question, but it needs to be asked nonetheless.
6
I get that this article is focusing on the two female Republican senators, but why are the alleged "moderate" male Republican senators getting a pass here? In particular, why are the soon-to-be-retired Jeff Flake and Bob Corker not also free to vote something other than party loyalty regarding this upcoming nominee? Why in the world would these men vote to deny women control over their own bodies and future?
21
"Why in the world would these men vote to deny women control over their own bodies and future?"
Answer: They are republican males. And as such, they view women as nothing more than sex toys.
If Murkowsi and Collins cave, the rest of us will fight on. We will elect better representatives in November, and eventually we will take this country back from the bigots and greedsters. It may take a while, but the days of rich men running the country are numbered.
7
To be accurate, ALL forms of contraception are under attack.
They opponents of choice are seeking to try to limit ALL forms of contraception as well as medically accurate sex education. They oppose contraception for married couples as well as teen girls.
They don’t believe women should ever enjoy sex. But they mask that with their talk about abortion.
12
Yes! Captain. There is not enough discussion of this anti-contraception, and indeed anti-sex agenda. Contraception has been illegal in my lifetime.
1
Why would they torpedo Trump's conservative pick? If they were so concerned with a woman's right to choice, they would not have voted to confirm Gorsuch. No reason to think they will change their mind now. One step closer to the Handmaid's Tale.
13
It's outrageous in this atmosphere of heated rhetoric and inflamed ideologies that so corrupt an administration and the despotic GOP should seek to both dismantle a woman's right to an abortion and rush a nominee on to the Supreme Court.
It can't be allowed. A president under a cloud of suspicion and his power-hungry, egregiously self-centered and misogynistic political party can't be allowed to hold the female population hostage to their antiquated and misguided religious beliefs.
The women of our country will not be dictated to by men living in a make-believe world where they dominate every aspect of our lives, or expect to have rich sex lives with no recourse for the women they impregnate.
If it comes down to this, then so be it: No abortion, no sex for men.
8
Promise!
And yet 53% of white women voted for him. And consistently vote for his party.
I cannot believe that in the year 2018, we are still having this debate. It is her body! The woman should have the right to decide. No one else!
11
Please let’s not return to the dark days of prioritizing eugenics over true class struggle. It was and always has been a divisive issue meant to turn our heads away from the evils of capitalism and the effects our current economic system has on our poorest citizens.
3
We must rise up and fill the streets like we did to stop the Vietnam war. National strikes, shut the country down! Mass marches on DC. Force republicans to understand that it is they who have destroyed our country.
RESISTANCE IS NOT FUTILE!
8
Don't count on Collins. She's a phony. She's positioned herself as a moderate and the media has largely bought the narrative. Here's a 538 assessment of how she actually votes. You can draw your own conclusions. https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/congress-trump-score/
8
Please stop deploying the word "powerless"as it applies to Democrats. They too, fall into this whiney little trap.
Though we cannot prevent the imposter- populist, self-admitted sex offender, likely-to-be-indicted criminal whose case will go to the Supremes, and openly misogynist man (women should be "punished" for having abortions) from "nominating" a candidate, surely we can alter the confirmation process by taking our case (ads, You Tube, televised town halls, etc.) to. the. people, 52 percent of whom are women who vote.
And there are at least two Republican women, mothers, sisters, friends, who might be convinced that doing the right thing will get them a favorable place in history, even if they lose an election, which they likely won't if they make their case.
Stop saying we are "powerless."
6
The "right thing?" According to whom?
I doubt that Collins and/or Murkowski will vote against Trump's nominee.
Their one healthcare (ACA) vote should not be seen as any harbinger.
And, any attempt to get "retiring" Republicans to vote against a very conservative nominee will be a waste of time.
This day was coming. Too many octogenarians on the Court.
No need to get all apopletic about what is not any surprise.
Yes, try to find a way to make it better, for Roe v Wade, but please, everyone who is acting as if this is a sudden blow to abortion rights --- how could you have not seen this coming?
Maybe, just maybe, instead of the check the box identity pandering politics by Hillary, the message should have been more narrow. And focused. And reinforced.
1
there is no way these two - or any GOP senator- would vote against whoever he puts up -
this is magical thinking
never going to happen
never
the only way to stop this is to for the democrats to grow a spine and act as one to stop this - pull out the sentate rule book and tie the place up in knots
wait until after the election -
maybe the numbers are better for the dems then
that is the only way
but i predict the dems cave - or a few do -and he gets what he wants
a 40 year old extremist - who will be there until
2065
mark my words
13
Here we go again.. The NYT-Democrats are relying on the same [two] Republican women to fight their causes. This ridiculous! Those ladies are loyal to the GOP to the end. A conscience is something they'll miraculously gain after they retire, write a memoir and go on a book tour.
6
If the likes of Neera Tanden are leading this fight, then it is most assuredly already lost.
2
I resent your lead in to the story - we are not 'powerless' as long as we have a voice and the political will to change the situation. I am so disappointed in the NYT. It is not the same paper it used to be. Must be the new publisher. A neoliberal for sure.
1
I wish we could take a larger view. The campaign against Planned Parenthood is focused on the born, but in fact Planned Parenthood is the only affordable care across the land for those lacking wealth-based and employer-based health care for the whole family.
Babies need care after they are born. These Republicans are not fond of providing support for babies, mothers, and the families.
Worshipping fetuses more than mothers and families is a peculiar distortion of how life actually works. I have come to belief that it is the purity and potential of the unborn that makes "religious" people so weirdly unconscious and eager to hate about the life of the babies after they are born.
6
Typo in second sentence:
The campaign against Planned Parenthood is focused on the ***unborn***, not the born. That's my point.
It's fascinating that Trump's likely payment for a surrogate abortion (Broidy's suspect $1.5 million via M. Cohen) has disppeared in the firehose of recent news.
Hypocrites all.
All life matters, and that includes mothers, fathers, babies, and siblings as well as the unborn.
4
Many Mainers are independents because we are fiscal conservatives and socially "liberal" - meaning individuals get to choose what they do with their bodies; to marry whom they choose; and to practice whatever religion they want - as private citizens. Collins has received modest support from us, but that goes out the window if she votes for a Trumpster candidate. And Yankees have loooong memories.
8
Please call her and let her know this.
1
I'm a supporter of abortion rights but see some value in overturning Roe. If the Court were to rule that the US Constitution does not prevent states from legislating with respect to abortion it would return the power to the states to prohibit it or not. Although the crazy red states would prohibit it, they have essentially done that already. At least in blue states like New York, Massachusetts, California, Oregon, etc. states could have sensible laws permitting abortion. In a way it is better if Roe is overturned. Now, the risk is the Court could seize the opportunity to rule that the US Constitution actually prohibits abortion in all states. That would take an amazing amount of judicial chutzpah for supposed textualists and personal hypocrisy at levels unseen except in the current president. It would also permanently ruin the Court as an institution. I'm not certain, but I don't think Roberts would do it.
3
Get back to us when you can push a fetus from your body, Horace. Until then you have no say in what women do with their bodies and lives.
10
Reproductive rights - or any rights that have received Constitutional protection - should not depend on one’s zip code.
3
Like njglea said - When you can give birth, you can make the decision. However, it is the height of arrogance to make that decision for someone else.
3
The lives of women for generations to come rests on the shoulders of Senators Collins and Murkowski. Rape and incest victims and women for whom a pregnancy poses a risk, women who are carrying a child for whom life poses nothing but pain and disabilities,all will have no recourse if Roe vs Wade is overturned and abortion becomes illegal, no matter the reason. I hope that the two women will keep that uppermost in their minds as they make their decisions.
Republicans know that if they deliver on overturning Roe vs Wade they will consolidate their power with the evangelical right. They already have used the"southern strategy" to their advantage over the years. But the issue of a woman's right to choose transcends political power. This is about people's lives.
I fail to understand a Party which claims to want government out of peoples' lives, except when it comes to women.
6
May I ask Senator Collins and Senator Murkowski to look to the exemplary Mary Dent Crisp for guidance? Dent (she divorced Crisp before all of this happened) was co-chair of the Republican National Committee. At the 1980 Republican national convention, Dent publicly and forcefully argued in favor of the Equal Rights Amendment and against the proposal to constitutionally ban abortion. In short, she said that the Republicans were throwing women and their civil rights to the wolves. For these views, President Reagan excoriated her. The Republican party ousted her. At the time, however, many Republicans were in favor of Dent's positions. In my heart of hearts, I believe many Republicans, especially Republican women, still do support Dent's ideals--underneath the rhetoric and the tribalism.
4
Democrats have focused on the wrong things and wrong tactics and we are paying the price. Dismantling Obama For America's Mass Movement after the 2008 election was a giant error of epic proportions! Not focusing on income inequality, controlling the banks and national healthcare has been equally huge. The demise of Unions has meant the end of 'Worker's Rights' and indentured servitude to the lords of Real estate for the foreseeable future. 'Libertarianism' means nothing if you can't afford food and shelter; but we are living in an age of false advertising and elaborate mind control. A pity that democracy needs to be eclipsed. Maybe it will have a renaissance in a millennium or two.
4
Contradictory to the Times' claim, there are no moderate Republicans. Collins and Murkowski both vote with Trump on issues about 80% of the time. The most "moderate" Republican, Rand Paul, votes with Trump 75% of the time. Collins and Murkowski voted to approve almost every single one of Trump's cabinet picks, although both at least voted against the hilariously unqualified Betsy DeVos (and Collins voted against ethics-free Scott Pruitt).
6
GOP politics is a “career choice” and I don’t believe that Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski will allow a woman’s right to make her own reproductive health decisions to override their concerns about their political futures. That’s it in a nutshell.
7
Single-issue voters get what they deserve, but abortion in America will never be effectively prohibited. There are many safe and effective ways to prevent and terminate pregnancies. Just as individuals continued to drink under Prohibition, they will continue to use contraceptives and abort their embryos if they choose to do so, even in the highly unlikely event that abortion, in 21st century America, is banned by the high court or the states. "Progressives" have been obsessing over this for almost half a century, crying "Wolf!" every time a Republican assumes the presidency.
Unless, of course, they also ban contraception and family planning.
5
Sure, it's just like Prohibition. Except for the thousands of women who died from unsafe abortions before Roe.
Your utter callousness is duly noted.
Another dude who cannot get pregnant mansplaining to the womenfolk. Arrgghhhhh.
1
I wouldn't bet on it. The future is female, but not these two, as they have caved into party lines before.
6
If Roe v Wade is overturned, the Trump party will have given the Democrats an incredible gift. Women will vote Democrat for decades to come, and the Republicans will lose an enormous number of female voters. There are already many Republicans who have turned their backs on the Trump party. Just keep pushing them into the arms of the liberals. We are here to welcome all who are disillusioned with the inhumanity of the Trumpists.
2
That's cold comfort the women who will suffer and even die if Roe v. Wade is overturned.
3
It doesn't matter. All the nominee has to do is lie during the confirmation hearing. Since it's can easily be a lie they can never be prosecuted for. "I'll make sure to give a fair look at any case that comes before me." That's all they have to say repeatedly, which of course is a lie. Then, even though 100% of people in the country know it's a lie, there will be no 'apparent' reason to block the nominee.
6
If in fact it does come down to the votes of these two women, we are in for yet another wrenching irony.
To my women friends, I am thinking that Murkowski and Collins are politicians first, and women second. I am not optimistic.
8
American women voters, especially Republican women need to take notice of how men on the Supreme Court want to control your reproductive rights. Gorsuch, Alito and especially Thomas want to make it illegal for women to control their own bodies and select whatever means to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. Every woman who supports any Senator who is willing to sacrifice a woman's right to choose is voting to keep women as second class citizens beholden to the superior male to decide her bodily functions.
5
If anything can motivate people to vote in November, I would hope it is situations like this. Our hope for human rights hinges on two possible votes from politicians who have confirmed nearly every horrendous cabinet pick for this administration, and often side with their party on policies that hurt that majority of Americans or further disenfranchise minorities.
Had Americans not been so apathetic about voting for candidates who strongly support ethical, forward-looking policies, we'd not be in daily fear about votes in a government split almost perfectly in half. We need to turn out in record numbers in November 2018 and 2020 to move toward a supermajority of conscionable representatives and senators who will represent the true people and ideals of America.
In the meantime, I fear we're going to have many painful disappointments until November. Let's hope that wakes enough people up to VOTE.
17
The media is trying to convince us that two female republican senators will decide the direction of OUR country. They are wrong.
WE THE PEOPLE have the power. Elected officials work for US. WE must hit the streets and show OUR outrage then call, write, tweet OUR elected officials to make them understand that WE will not allow the destruction of OUR social fabric by a few insatiably greedy, socially unconscious, inherited/stolen wealth neanderthals.
Nationwide marches/demonstrations - possibly worldwide - are being held tomorrow to give voice to OUR outrage at these attacks on OUR United States of America. Planned Parenthood, Naral, Indivisable, Move On, #Families Belong Together, Indivisable, ACLU and many other organizations are forming armies of resistance to march. Please, Good People, go to their websites and find a march near you and hit the streets tomorrow.
Every single American citizen who values the life we have enjoyed since WWII must hit the streets in protest.
The Con Don and his Top 1% Global Financial Elite Robber Baron/Radical religion Good Old Boys' cabal want to start WW3 and take over the world. WE are the only ones who can/will stop them. OUR lives and civil society depend on us.
20
The vast majority of politicians - mainly on the GOP side - could care less about public marches and protests. All they care about is getting 'their' judges installed so 'their' policies can be upheld in a courtroom. Scorched-earth politics matter, and anyone who doesn't agree w/them likewise doesn't matter in their view.
Thank Newt Gingrich and his 'Republican Revolution' in the '90s for starting this downward spiral of polarizing politics....
1
Welcome back, Christian Shariah Law !
Free forced pregnancies for all women in America.
Your fundamentalist nation's and states' capital will now control the nation's uteruses.
Grand Old Patriarchy 2018
Sit down, shut up and do as you're told, American women.
....and free Viagra for all men.
Nice GOPeople.
105
Senators Collins & Murkowski should simply require what Senate President McConnell stated from the floor of the Senate on the 16th of March in 2016:
"Give the People a voice in filling this vacancy!"
13
Oh sure, that'll work.
So what happened prior to Roe v Wade? Women resorted to coat hangers and back alley abortionists, killing their fetuses ad often themselves. Does anyone reasonably expect that things will be different if women's reproductive rights as guaranteed by Roe are brought to a close? In some states, abortions will remain available. In others, it will be back to the coat hangers and the abortionists. Fetuses will continue to be destroyed and women will die. So what will our conservatives have accomplished?
23
Womanslaughter.
In the cruel fake Christian mind of radical Republicans, women need to be punished for having sex, sometimes with death, Stu.
Nice GOPeople.
18
They will have ordered the deaths a lot of women, Stu.
Trump stated very clearly before the election that women should be 'punished' for seeking to end an unwanted pregnancy.
The sentence is death.
5
Many abortions today happen by pill, and in countries where that is not legal, women who naturally miscarry IF POOR are often reported to the police on suspicion of having aborted illegally. There will still be some coat hangers, but illegality will look a little different this time. Big questions is whether the reactionary court we are likely to get won't try to prevent blue states from maintaining a woman's right to choose, so the red state pols can more easily obtain abortions for their daughters and mistresses. A big boon for the defense bar who will be trying to keep scared 15 year olds and their friends out of prison after mail ordering abortion drugs from abroad. Good times.
2
I wish we would drop the term "abortion rights". We are talking about WOMEN's rights to have control over their lives and medical decisions. The same rights that every man has. Abortion is a painful, wrenching decision that is not taken lightly. To treat women as if they are empty vessels required to carry any burden of childbirth, regardless of means or circumstance, is just so offensive and so diametrically opposed to the notion of liberty that the GOP likes to talk up... it just boils the blood... Trump WILL choose someone for the specific purpose of overturning Roe vs. Wade. That's what he does. Slash and burn. Consequences, like taxes, are for the little people. Where was it...? Ohio, where the legislature was considering bill HB 565 making abortion a capital crime. This is a pretty dark future...
149
I’m sympathetic with senators Collins and Murkowski, who are obviously placed in a difficult position. Unfortunately, history shows us that if you seek a leadership role, you may find yourself in a situation where doing the right thing will be very, very costly. Yes, it might be hard to risk your career by voting against a supreme court nominee; but why embark on that leadership career in the first place, if you don’t want to do the right thing when the chips are down?
At least the penalty for displeasing the president and his base won’t be prison or death, which can happen to you in certain countries in the world today. President Trump has spoken warmly about Putin, Duterte, and Kim Jong-un, but at least he can’t order an assassination squad to take care of his enemies, the way these three can.
And when it comes to prison (or worse): the religious right won’t be satisfied until abortion carries a heavy prison sentence, at least. And for any woman who dares to abort a fetus after 20 weeks? Don’t ask.
28
Constance, you're so right. Why seek leadership and then shirk it when it matters? That's what I never got about ex-Speaker Bohner. He proudly said his role was just "to facilitate the process." Now Is that something for your mom or your grandchildren to be proud of? He was leaving the leadership post to retire, so he could have first let the House vote on immigration and accomplished something important for the history books instead of achieving nothing of fleeing with his tail between his legs.
Collins and Murkowski will cave and vote for whatever far right wing anti choice extremist Trump picks. Both of them are utterly worthless GOP hacks who, in the end, care not in the least die preserving “Roe v. Wade.”
23
Don't count on Collins, a phony since she first opened her mouth as an infant. She sits idly by while everybody's health insurance premiums rise and she's got some excuse for why she made the bad deal with McConnell. Face it, she's a Republican, and all they care about is being on the winning side and filling their bank accounts with cash. When you're in the hospital with an infection from your back alley abortion, she'll be in Northeast Harbor having cocktails with her rich friends. Without a care in the world.
49
And today she is back-pedaling, saying that she 'doesn't like a litmus test' for the SC. Up here, we have learned enough about Collins to throw her out in 2020. Unfortunately, by then the SC will probably be unrecognizable to anyone hoping for a balanced court.
2
You are on point with your comment. I always believed that Collins was a phony. She's positioned herself as a moderate and the media has largely bought the narrative. Here's a 538 assessment of how she actually votes: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/congress-trump-score/
1
"Don't count on Collins, a phony since she first opened her mouth as an infant."
[chuckle] You must be her Dad.
Shouldn't your ire be directed at the left-leaning non-voters in 2016 who left us in this predicament, and elevated both Collins and Murkowski to the role of pivotal figures now, roles neither of them sought?
Both women are politicians, a term I use descriptively, not as implicitly pejorative. By definition, the voters who elected them as Republicans have a reasonable expectation that voter preferences will be reflected in how they cast votes in the Senate. Whether those votes are consistent with the preponderance of constituent sentiment, or taken as principled exceptions favoring minority opinion, they involve a political calculation. That should not come as any surprise in a republic, nor is it evidence of a detached, mercenary or uncaring character.
Is anyone going to be surprised if Democrat senators up for re-election in red states in 2018 decline to commit political suicide by thwarting Trump's nominee? Will that too amount to proof of a detached, mercenary or uncaring character? Does it really advance the cause of reproductive rights if these red state senators go down in flames, and Republicans secure a filibuster-proof majority going forward, giving then carte blanche on all future legislation, not just reproductive rights?
I know, acknowledging ambiguity is not as satisfying as misdirecting blame from our own non-voters to Collins and Murkowski!
Trump has the opportunity to show the vacuity of identity politics by picking a Asian-Native American-transsexual...conservative.
4
I'll settle for a sentient human being.
12
Women that vote republican are a mystery to me. Love your daughters, give them choices. Vote in every election. Greed and hate brought us here. We are all hand maids now
88
Or who voted for 3rd party protest candidates or who abstained. Both actions were essentially half a vote for Trump.
3
Don't kid yourself. Collins and Murkowski will look for any possible excuse to vote Republican, and McConnell will find one for them, albeit wrapped in lies. The only thing that could move these ladies would be ugly power plays in their home states, and I doubt the Democrats know how to do that.
28
This is not about abortion nor choice.
This all about female reproductive, sex and health personal private power and control over their bodies and minds in pursuit of their divine natural equal certain unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. A fetus is not a person. A woman is not a man.
No male nor female nor church nor state should have power over them. Misogyny deserves to die.
100
New York Times states, "Democrat almost powerless ..." No, we are not! Thanks to the "McConnell Rule" which says "no vote on nominees until after the elections" the Democrats along with two or three sane Republicans will block the GOP's candidate to the SCOTUS!
Just watch us! We, will march, we will protest, we will get the vote out....Russia can't stop us this time!
Fired up, ready to go! VOTE, our nation's future depends on YOU!
26
McConnell has already backpedaled and said he was referring to a presidential election year. Hypocrites.
3
Republicans would like to make abortion illegal, while at the same time they want to destroy Obamacare insurance. So who is going to pay for the maternity care and newborn infant care without insurance???? Who is going to support these women who are compelled by the government to have these babies? Who pays for the child care and diapers and formula? What laws truly protect women from being fired once the boss finds out they are pregnant and will need maternity leave?
Republicans offer no good answers.
73
and now the Trump regime is talking about taking food stamps away if you do not have a job.
53% of white women voted for Trump. Trump campaigned on appointing "pro-life" justices. Here we are.
16
Not quite right. There were some 200 million registered voters in the year 2016. 63 million (+-) voted for Trump. 65 million (+-) voted Hillary, so right off the bat 72 million voters sat on their hands some of whom were women.
The total percentage of voters who were women was 53%. That would mean out of the 128 million votes, 68 million votes were from women. Of those 68 million 42% voted for Trump i.e. little over 28.5 million women voted for Trump. Drop the myth that white women gave us Trump. Whether they were white or not, it's less than a third of the registered voters. What gave us Trump was a poor campaign that assumed key blue states were a lock. Assume nothing in the mid terms. VOTE!
2
Are these two women actually for the rights of all women or do they hold out so that they can shower their states with massive oil and gas contracts or other goodies and themselves with GOP dollars so their re-elections are insured?
I almost bled to death from a "procedure" done before Roe v. Wade. Maybe those of us who have believed and fought for Roe v. Wade have been wrong all along. The GOP has been stripping less well off women of reproductive rights for years, using it as a way to rake in the dollars. Maybe Roe v. Wade should be struck down and complacent liberals face the truth and start voting.
17
I have to say in rebuttal to one NY Times' Pick commenter that Roe vs Wade is indeed not done. I believe the reader does not understand the profound seriousness of having the government control a woman's moral right to do with her body that which she must. First, sir, if for one minute you think millions of my sisters throughout this nation will sit still to allow not only Trump and the legislative and judicial branches but also evangelicals to judge us, you have another think coming. I believe I know women better than men. I have been one for 70 plus years now, and I speak as one reared in the Catholic faith. But there is a moral law far beyond those arbitrary and man-made ones. And that is called human rights. Please do not underestimate the power that we women have. We will fight, and fight hard.
37
Those 2 senators won't save abortion rights. They're both beyond childbearing, they no longer care.
11
So at the highest level the ultimate judicial arbiter, the Supreme Court, is as political as the rest of the system and we have contending Republican and Democrat justice. So much for the idea that "justice is blind". We are the mercy of the politics. God help us all.
10
Turning the SC nomination process into a matter of Roe v Wade is a losing strategy for the dems. Better that they point out that trump should not be appointing anyone while so many law suits are hanging over his head -- completely wrong for him to appoint someone who will likely have to determine his standing down the line. (or at least set up that a trump appointee will have to recuse themselves).
8
Reversing Roe v Wade sends the right to an abortion back to the states, New York had an established right to an abortion prior to Roe v Wade and it still does. Overall in those states things should not change and possibly be expanded if voters pay attention
The problem is that even with Roe v Wade several states make the obtaining of abortion financially and procedurally prohibitive, That is where the lobbying should be.
5
Peoples’ rights shouldn’t depend on their zip code. Period.
3
The real problem is more than a few states are poised to render abortion a criminal offense up to and including life in prison or the death penalty, even if carrying the child could result in the womans death from complications. It should not matter where you live in the United States. A woman's right to make decisions about her well being are hers to make. Women are not chattel. The state should not hold dominion over their bodies.
3
Selection of the proper Putin-Trump United States Supreme Court appointee, like the urgent retirement pressure put on Kennedy, is of obvious great immediate importance to both Putin and Trump. I'm sure that working one-on-one together next week they'll be able to pick the right candidate to suit both their needs to absolve any, and all, legal consequences of the Mueller investigation. Filling the position with an anti-abortionist would be a secondary, but desired, fringe benefit.
10
Susan Collins does not have to look far for inspiration. It was Sen. Margaret Chase Smith (R-Maine) whose Declaration of Conscience" challenge Joe McCarthy and vote derailed Rchard Nixon's nomination of G. Harrold Carswell to the Supreme Court despite his segregationist leanings.
6
Forget about Collins taking a strong position. She bought all the assurances McConnell gave her for DACA and that certainly turned out well. Why she falls for these lies,or knowingly chooses these positions, is anybody's guess, but be assured she will cave in on this one, just like before.
Put her in squarely in the reverse Roe v. Wade column. Absolutely no doubt in that.
14
In the minds of the religious right and the rest of the approximately 40% of the country that control our government (through gerrymandering and rural-state over-representation) there is no more potent issue than abortion. Trump, McConnell, and the rest of them know this is largely the key to their continuing power.
The people who don't read the NY Times and the Washington Post, which is most of the country, are mostly swayed by easilly-explained issues of morality and religious beliefs. It is no small irony that emotional revulsion to the separation of migrant children from their mothers even got Franklin Graham's people upset.
These two senators are an unlikely line of defense, and people like Manchin are just as unlikely. In practical terms, the right to abortion is almost certainly dead. It remains to be seen whether the right-wing manipulators will find it more effective to carry on with the small strokes of dismantling other reproductive rights (contraception) or move on to rolling back marriage equality or something else that can gin up the deep feelings of the rather simple-minded people that are keeping them in power.
10
This is all about abortion rights. Gay and LGBTQ rights are tied to it. One goes, they all go. But I have something say about abortion rights. It is here in this format that some conservative might actually read what I have to say.
God aborts 1/3 all pregnancies in the first trimester. All of those beautiful, created perfect by God are aborted. Why? Because they would never have made it to full term! We know and we accept that.
I believe in a woman's right to choose and I believe in life. How do I reconcile those two beliefs which I hold in equal tension? Easy. Each individual woman has the right to make a choice based on her own ideas about God and human, creation and what cannot be allowed to continue, along with what can.
I do not believe in the right of the government to make those choices for the woman. I know this will be a surprise to a lot of people, but the government is not God. When I make a decision of such import as abortion, I want to consult my physician, my partner and my own God, not the God of the congress (money). I don't believe the government is qualified to make such decision, not the president, not the congress and certainly not the supreme court judges. My God, not yours! That is what gives me the right to choose.
22
Sorry, but Collins and Murkowski will no doubt betray women and give away their votes for something in return. I hope I’m wrong but it seems governing is nothing more than a horse trading game.
16
Not only will Collins and Murkowski do nothing to protect the right to choose from this radical and extremist court, they will do nothing to protect the right to buy, sell and use all forms of birth control when this radical and extremist court declares that illegal as well.
14
If the Christians get their way and abortion is again made illegal in our country we are one step closer to a theocracy. Rich women who want an abortion will travel to another country to get one, poor women will bear a child they can’t care for. What is next for these radical Christians? Are they going make their religion officially the religion of our once great nation? In the next five years the Supreme Court will probably allow prayer in schools, ban same-sex marriage, outlaw abortion, allow creches to be erected outside town halls - oh, and signs outside businesses - “we serve Christians only please - our faith requires this.”
56
In the 1870's Bismarck, the German chancellor, waged a series of campaign against the German Empire's Catholics. This was the original "Kulturkampf". It's still going on in America; against women, gays, blacks, and it's never going to end. Why should it? One party, the Republicans, claims all those opposed to equality and one party, the Democrats claims everybody else. The problem is that the Democrats do not control the levers of power. To quote the man in the White House, "Sad!"
2
It's easy to assume the worst, but we can't predict a future vote. I often think, particularly in the last couple years, that the slogans and arguments in protest against pro-lifers focus on the most polarizing and least sympathetic language, and therefore become the least persuasive. These two Senators could use more bolstering right now in a positive light from us humanists. There are certainly pro-life advocates who are ruthless and have no interest in human rights, but there are plenty who are in moral dilemma and who may only think of abortion rights in the worst case way. They could be reminded/taught to understand that pro-choice isn't simply about abortion. These laws are about the myriad of complexity that involves a woman's life that includes trauma, sacrifice, health, emotional and mortal danger, family and yes, religious belief. If we shift the dialogue to remind people that choice, health, and value in our fellow humans (women) is at the crux of this law, then maybe the body of support will have farther reach and break up the herd that are pushed to one side. We can reach women and men buried in the right who don't yet have a voice but conduct their daily lives with sympathy. There is more in common than we allow ourselves to imagine. If my Republican Catholic sister-in-law could learn from history and abortion statistics and finally vote for Obama and against Trump, these details matter.
2
Can we change the rhetoric from “pro life” to what it really is: “anti choice?” You’re not helping the pro choice contingent by repeating the term pro life over and over again in your comment.
20
Totally agree after re-reading. If I could edit accordingly, I would. I do understand given the topic I am addressing, choice of words is sensitive. Thank you, Desire Trails
I think the angst and media hyperbole over Roe v Wade is misplaced, and is characterizing the SCOTUS fight over an issue (or a few issues) that are already settled law. I don’t think there is a danger that Roe, the right to gay marriage, and other civil rights will be overturned. I believe that the Democrats would be get more traction from a wider swath of the public if they focus on the issues that are not settled - healthcare, gun ownership, economic reform, unsettled LGBTQ rights, etc. By focusing so acutely and trying to mobilize a portion of the base on a single issue, they are once again become a party of single or secular interest and not seen as the party that wants job growth, economic equality, and a host of other issues that are crucial to them taking back the House or Senate.
1
Normally, I would agree with you. We have large societal problems. Income inequality is turning us into a nation of billionaires and serfs. We have health care that costs us twice per capita of other nations, yet our health outcomes are, at best, the same. Social Security and Medicare, programs people take far too much for granted (to the point where they don't even understand these are government-run programs) are increasingly under siege. Unions? Well, you just saw what happened to take even more power away from unions.
But, I hate to say this: most Americans are uninformed and don't give much thought to anything except what's on TV. But, there is one issue every child-bearing age woman and every single man can grasp: being forced to bring an unwanted, unplanned for, pregnancy to term. I'm past that age, but I remember taking my planning and prevention duties very seriously, and access to reproductive care and maintenance was very important, as it should be to everyone living in, well, civilization.
So, maybe the Democrats are right in tapping into something so fundamental. They should frame it in fear-tactics like the gun enthusiasts do--first, they'll come for your abortions, then, they'll come for your contraceptives, they'll force you into life-threatening back-alley abortions......
Add a few graphics, and it just might work.
2
I remember before Roe v Wade. The wealthy just went overseas to get abortions; others resorted to back alley and even some do-it-yourself coat hanger procedures that risked more than just the fetus. And what of the children born to mothers who would be forced to give birth and raise children they neither wish nor, in some cases are able, to raise?
If all of those men--in Congress and in the Supreme Court--want to push the pro-life agenda, let them find a way to saddle the male with responsibility and financial burden of raising their children.
50
Let's not delude ourselves. Trump will get his nominee through. Roe v. Wade will be overturned. Obamacare is history. Affirmative action is history. Access to military-style weapons will be universal. Gay marriage is over. Corporate interests will trump individual ones.
But let's remember that the Constitution does not limit SCOTUS to nine justices. It may be a decade or two, but demographic changes in the electorate may well lead to a reversal of this catastrophe. Just because FDR failed to pack the court doesn't mean that circumstances won't allow it in the future.
It's going to be pretty painful in the meantime though.
29
While I agree with you, I am holding onto hope. Hope that the Democrats will come together and use the "McConnell Rule " to their advantage. Hope that the three Democrats that voted for Gorsuch will stand with their colleagues, along with maybe Flake, Collins and maybe Murkowski. Hope that We, the People seeing what is coming, the disaster that Trump is will get out and vote! Vote for our lives and our freedoms!
3
Perhaps it has already occurred to Herrs Miller and Bannon that they can add justices just as easily as a future administration. It won't take much to persuade POTUS to do it.
I wouldn’t hold my breathe that these two Senator signs will do anything to help the situation. Murlowski will be promosed the chance to put oil rigs in the Gulf of Alaska, to satisfy her dream of drilling anywhere and everywhere in Alaska. To her, that’s more important than the rights of women, workers, minorities and immigrants. And as for Susan Collins, she’s as bad as Jeff Flake, without his eloquence, all talk, no action.
Then there are the three Democrats, who no doubt will endorse whoever the nominee, no questions asked, just as they did for Gorsuch. And after posturing for a week or two, the other Democrats will fold, saying something that we take the high road, unlike the Republicans. meanwhile Trump, who may very well be indicted, will choose someone to the right of even Thomas and Gorsuch, and we as a country will be sent backwards for at least a generation. In a country in which more people voted for Clinton than Trump and There are 40 million more Democtarts nationwide, we will be forced to live by the far right edicts of this Supreme Court
Certainly this is not what the founding fathers imagined,that totally partisan justices would be on the court for decades. Even if they did imagine that, the system is broken. Either they should be limited to 10 to 15 years or there should be more of them so perhaps one party or one man’s decision won’t hold so much weight. To leave things as they are now is untenable.
10
And the dastardly deeds proceed. Even the constitutional checks no longer work, may even be turned against original intentions. What with the manipulations of the electoral college, gerrymandering and the misguided life terms of the supreme court justices, the seeming apathy and/or ignorance of eligible voters in the US all but guarantees self-destruction.
Barring major and unlikely mass awakening, we can say goodbye to anything resembling a nation “of the people, for the people and by the people”.
10
This is clutching at straws. A minority of American will succeed in imposing their will on the majority. Democrats have won the majority of the vote in six of the last seven election, but the US is a flawed democracy, so the will of the majority does not rule here.
The US government is answerable only to Republican voters, because of the structural bias against the people inherent in the US constitution. The rest of us can pound sand.
20
Pro-life addvocates learned a long time ago that the way to limit abortion is not through the supreme court but through state legislatures. Those efforts have been quite effective. If a true conservative makes her way to the court all the better for the pro life movement and a future reversal of Roe v. Wade.
3
If the goal is to limit abortion the best way to do it is by providing sex education and access to affordable health care and contraception.
2
Maybe it's just wishful thinking, but I actually don't believe the GOP wants to repeal Roe v. Wade. It's an incredible motivator for their base and for donors. Apart from a few true believers, their anti-choice stance is calculated politically not morally. If abortion was outlawed, they'd have little else for evangelical voters.
28
Jelly,
Since the GOP convention in 1964 the party has used division to establish its rule. When Roe v Wade is overturned they will use their myriad of divisive beliefs to create cynicism and distrust in your population to make sure that a common citizenship is never again a reality
8
It may also be wishful thinking that evangelical voters will wake up to the fact they have been played by the republican party for decades. Same goes for the racists, gun fanatics, etc. Republicans care about one thing: tax cuts. Everyone else are pawns.
5
It's amazing to see how many people are still holding out hope that something... anything... can be done to stop the nomination and confirmation of the most conservative nominee to the bench. There isn't going to be a big fight, an epic battle, or anything else that hints at democrat/liberal/progressive success. The fight ended on Tuesday, November 6th, 2016 at about 10:30 PM EST when the race for president of the United States was called for Donald J. Trump. Anyone who doesn't like what's happening now should have done something about it 600 days ago. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski are not going to come and save you now.
23
Two words: "McConnell Rule" he instigated a rule that NO hearings for a SCOTUS nominee until after the elections! The GOP has a slight majority in the Senate, all we need is ONE patriot to stand up to the Bully-inChief!
Wait and see!
2
Except that it was Nov. 8, not 6--I agree with you completely.
Yea... too bad I can't edit that. Nov. 8th.
Trump should know that his Presidency is for 2 more years (no sane person thinks, even within GOP establishment, that he will win a second term). After that he is liable to civil law suits which are not related to his official actions and duties.
His policies as a President might be safe under such a judge. Trump hardly cares about his policies and actions as a President anyway. He has no ideology and/or policy of his own other than making more money, more propaganda and power, and do pretty much anything to get it.
But an actual conservative judge in Supreme Court would be the last person Trump would like to see to defend his utter immoral character and tendency to lie, which he seem unable to control.
It's best for a person like him to elect a liberal and 'open minded' Judge.
1
Donald could easily place a judge on the SCOTUS that will help him out. He already promised "pro-life" only.
3
It is pretty ironic that the women of the USA will lose the right to choose just as the women of Ireland finally won that right.
There is no way Donald Trump will be able to choose any justice other than one who will assure the destruction of reproductive rights, because that is the implicit promise the Republicans have been giving the religious right for the last 35 years. It's payoff time.
59
So what are the likely consequences if Roe v Wade is overturned? It was bad law from the beginning, and an oft-cited example of the high court legislating from the bench. The states' rights approach that is emerging as the decision's reach shrinks doesn't serve women, either.
Instead, Congress should do its job and pass a law mandating legal access to abortion, if that is what the majority of the country wants. Roe short-circuited a national debate that needs to be carried through the legislature, not the courts. Numerous surveys demonstrate that most Americans want some restrictions on legal abortions, with restrictions increasing further into pregnancy. It's time to create and pass federal laws in line with that dominant view, rather than relying on a decades-old court case to protect a "right" to access that has never been clearly defined.
7
That doesn't make sense. Individual rights protected by the constitution are not subject to a majority vote. What if the majority of American and/or congress want slavery back ?
8
Access to abortion is not an individual right currently explicitly protected by the constitution. Slavery was explicitly abolished by the 13th Amendment, so this example is a false equivalency. But in practice, if the vast majority of Americans wanted a return to slavery, the constitution could be amended through the same 3/4-of-states approval process as other amendments have been. Congress alone couldn't do it legally, however. Individual rights certainly are subject to majority vote, if the majority is politically dominant enough to compel decisive action. American constitutional history to date has always moved in the general direction of explicitly granting more rights to more people...but there's unfortunately no reason it has to be that way.
A true conservative Justice will likely respect precedence so the pro abortion argument is weak.
1
Sure, we saw on Monday how that totally stopped the conservative justices from throwing out Abood (a decision from 1977) in Janus.
2
I said it was weak not guarenteed. Plus that was 40 years ago. Not bad odds.
As (of all people) Rudy Giuliani has said years ago, "we have to prepare for the worst and hope for the best."
Let's not kid ourselves to think the two females among the Pale Male Stale will block a pro-birther out of the courage of their convictions, if at all. If they do so, it'll be strictly for PR, in which case, um...yay?
But they won't. They both waved in the Thief Justice when their GOP owners also detonated the nuke, yet are still seen now as even the sane once saw Ivanka: moderators of a trainwreck they are complicit with in the first place.
6
Giuliani did not coin that phrase, in case you're crediting him with that. Guiliani will be remembered for answering "911" to more than fifty percent of the questions ever posed to him.
1
Don't get your hopes up...both will fold like a deck of cards.
20
REALITY: two of the three dems that voted for Gorsuch will determine the candidate
3
Roe v. Wade was not just about "abortion rights"--please read it, it concerned the right of a woman's privacy and choices. It concerns a whole range of rights concerning the body, including birth control, that would be eviscerated by a bunch of fat old men.
73
I immigrated from a country which lags behind the US in many ways but I know first hand what happens if you deny access to woman's right to chose. It is awful! You think the story of that little girl at the border with pink sneakers is sad, which it is, wait until you ban abortion all together.
26
Sen. Murkowski and Sen. Collins have a chance to render the country a signal service by refusing to vote for a hard-right nominee. By insisting on a moderate, they will help to reduce the polarization of the country and ensure that this rudderless train composed of Trump and a packed conservative Court will not inflict more wounds to the body politic. They should consider how such a Court would deal with abortion rights, and what the removal of these rights would bring about in social unrest.
They may be given blandishments and promises, but they should remember the unredeemed promises made to Sen. Collins by O’Connell. With this vote, they could help to right the autocratic running of the Senate. They could bring about normal order in the drafting of bills. This is their chance to be movers of history for which they would be remembered. This may be the most consequential action of their noteworthy senatorial careers.
6
What a heavy responsibility these two women have. How have the rights of half our population come down to a partisan battle? What is wrong with our democracy?
7
The patriarchal ownership of women is back on the table. And let's not forget that marriage between two people of the same sex could be targeted too. We are heading back to government being in personal business. GOP likes big government.
9
I think Barry Goldwater said something like, "Its time we get the government out American's bedrooms."
2
Democrats need to cease the 'clever-crafty' approach. They can never beat the Republicans at their game. And any change the Democrats make comes back to haunt them, for instance, it was President Carter who made religion a big part of his campaign and see what happened. And it was the Dems who watered down the filibuster and how they can't use it. A smart way will be to go after every Republican, rightwing or super-rightwing. The one good thing about Trumpy being elected is that he's shown that there are few, if any Repubs who're conservative. They're mostly opportunists with malleable morals. Pay them enough, and they'll be crowing like cockatoos. So the Dems & progressives much launch directed campaigns against select Repubs.
2
Carter may have talked about religion, but Nixon was joined at the hip to Billy Graham, and Reagan hand delivered the invitations to the alt right evangelists. Just adding some perspective.
1
The moment has come when these women, and their fellow Senators, will choose their legacy: To uphold the fundamental human and constitutional rights of the majority of our citizens (girls and women), or to return them to the legal status of reproductive chattel.
15
The direction of America changes, dreams die, tears are plentiful.
New dreams rise, the country is forever changed, eyes are fountains.
3
Hoping but not hopeful.
1
Last I checked, the Murkowski and Collins “no” votes against repealing the ACA didn’t do much to stop it from being further gutted. Look for Republicans to lie, cheat, and steal so that they can have the ultimate joy of enabling the federal government regulating women’s bodies. It’s in the framers intent to control women, after all, and God’s will. Best not to hang hopes on two people.
5
Lisa Murkowski is NOT a “Republican Senator”. She was elected in an Independent ticket after the Republican party did not nominate her.
6
If true, (not questioning your veracity,just not sure) then she should stand up and leave the party that does not respect her.
2
Sen. Collins will be true to form. She will squirm, pontificate, ameliorate, be conscience stricken, grieve for democracy, hold out for McConnell's lying promises to her and then cave and fold and vote for any nominee the White House sends, knowing full well that the nominees will duck and cover when asked about choice.
And that choice, the choice of the nominee to say that he or she really can't talk about how he or she might vote in the abstract on a case, will be all the cover that the morally bankrupt, the moral phony that is Sen. Susan Collins will need to avert her eyes and condemn generations of American women to becoming real life Hand Maidens.
And Murkowski? She is a political dealer. She will have a shopping list, McConnell will fill it and she will cynically vote for the regime's nominee, especially when the wheedler Collins let's her off the hook with hand wrenching anguish in her high troubled voice says she has the nominee's promise to be fair.
But Collins? With a vote to save women's rights, she will prove herself Jezebel to American women.
15
If women do not stand up for women, who will? The GOP men won't, since they have never been in the same room with honesty. The men in the GOP are much like the Taliban and other regressive groups that believe a women is a 2nd class citizen, and that only them can tell a woman what she can and can't do with her body. More and more, we are seeing our great country become another repressive society where men are in charge and women are not. Collins and Murkowski can be part of the solution or part of the problem. If they are subservient to their masters in the GOP, then women will lose. Shame that being a woman and standing up for other women doesn't rise above the anti women repressive GOP. Shame on them.
6
The Senate's refusal to hold hearings for Merrick Garland, a moderate that Republicans had previously approved of every step of the way, using the ridiculous excuse that the people's choice of next President, rather than the people's choice of the sitting President, Obama, should be the deciding factor, is one of the most egregious things the Republicans have ever done. Trump didn't win the popular vote by a large margin. So whomever is chosen as the next Supreme Court justice will not be the people's choice.
7
Too late. It's all over. White women, my demographic, did this to themselves when the majority of them voted for Trump. Votes have consequences. Our daughters now deal with the consequences.
49
I can only hope that when the Democrats eventually get back into power they will at least impeach Gorsuch as his nomination resulting from an unconstitutional refusal to even consider Obama's nominee is no doubt tainted. And, as Clarence Thomas also participated in sexual intimidation of women and lied about it in his hearings, I hope he will go, too.
In baseball terms, the Republicans are not only playing hardball but are head hunting. Let the Democrats do the same.
8
In the weeks to come, there will be lots of editorials and reader comments as the appointment comes closer, and many will show faith that these women will help stop this rolling disasters. It won't happen. Not a chance. They, like Corker and Flake, are gutless politicians who feign indignity and "concern" about this governments legion of abuses, but in the end, they fall in line like good right wing extremists who take no action to help save what little is left of our country's soul and ensure that the power of corporations grow ever greater while those of individuals are snuffed out. Shame on them, and god help us. This is a done deal.
4
There is no drama to this one.
Trump will nominate a hard line conservative and no GOP senator will vote against this nomination.
Let this be a lesson to our non thinking electorate and politicians:
- Those who wasted their vote on the altar of higher ideals.
- The democratic party elite, who nominated a politician with the weakest favor-ability rating in recent history.
- Said politician who ran a weak and lazy campaign ignoring even the warnings of her own husband.
6
If the three Democrats vote for the nominee, as they did for Gorsich, Murkowski and Collins are irrelevant. Why aren't they in the lede, and recipients of equal focus?
6
I am so tired of the fight for women's reproductive rights being between women and mostly white men. White men who would pay for a mistress's abortion in a heartbeat. White men who happily stick it to poor people struggling to feed, house, clothe, and provide child care for their children while working low paying jobs that do not and cannot cover those costs. Poor people who cannot afford reliable birth control and visits to doctors and who often rely on services like those provided by Planned Parenthood, which these white men also want to completely defund and abolish.
248
It's funny that you should mention white men paying for their mistress's abortions, because when Michael Cohen flips he might be shedding some light on the fact that there's a good chance it was Donald Trump and not Eliot Broidy who paid a playmate $1.3 million in hush money to keep her abortion secret after an affair (the NDA Cohen used for Broidy had the same pseudonyms as Trump's NDA to several women.)
Maybe that's why Trump and his co-conspirators have been dialing up their attack on the Mueller investigation recently.
6
um, you're forgetting about all the "white men" of the Democratic party who are fighting on your side...and the women who make up half of the Evangelical right voting bloc.
Perhaps progressives should stick together rather than distracting themselves with divide-and-conquer identity
politics obsessions.
1
Seattle, Point taken. I do not forget or take for granted the support for reproductive rights of white Democratic men. And I am bewildered by the support of women for taking away these rights. However, the power to decide the fate of women's reproductive rights, which extend to and affect entire families, overwhelmingly lies in the hands of mostly white, American men. Clarence Thomas is an outlier.
RE: "Two Republicans Hold High Court in Their Hands"
I am sorry, is that all you have? Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski are Republicans first and foremost.
Welcome to the Handmaid's Tale and the Christian States of Dominion.
15
Whatever you think about abortion, Roe was a horrible and totalitarian decision. Send it back to the states. A good chunk of states will ban it. A good chunk of states will allow abortion up to 16 years. Let us democratically debate the issue. Let us take it out of national politics. That would actually be a game changer and probable benefit for Democrats.
1
No, No, a thousand times no! The rights of a group of people are not up to the voters. Suppose a majority of voters wanted to repeal civil rights for black Americans? A woman's right to control what happens to her own body is not up for "democratic debate."
6
"A woman's right to control what happens to her own body is not up for 'democratic debate.' "
Exactly! How can anyone think that it's "totalitarian" to say that the government can't dictate what a woman does with her own body?
Susan Collins will cave. That's what she does. She expresses "concern" or whatever, and then votes with Repubs because she apparently believes McConnell when he says he will do something. (What happened to the healthcare issue she was supposed to get?) And she still believes somehow that her party is the sane and responsible party of her parents. I have absolutely no faith that she would vote for a moderate, even if Trump would submit one.
Mitch McConnell is the root of our current governmental and political crisis, and clearly he does not care because he has power and is making money. I do not believe he actually has principles--it's all political baseball to him.
15
It will be interesting to watch Sen. Collins try to figure out how to go. Much will depend on how "radical" the Trumpian choice is. Her approval in Maine is not what once was.
8
It's terribly sad (and quite telling) that we can only hope that GOP women--based on being women--might possibly care about the lives of other women. Is it not possible that one man stand up for the lives, health, and self sovereignty of women?
You can't claim to be for less government if you think it's reasonable for the government to control the most personal thing of all: one's physical body.
Men would never allow government to pass laws regarding the sovereignty over their bodily integrity.
55
What Murkowski and Collins “hold in their own hands” goes well beyond the future of the Supreme Court to include their own reputations in the present moment and their legacies when they’re gone. What will those legacies be to their granddaughters and great nieces and American women for generations to come? That they were loyal to their party? Or loyal to their posterity? This is the defining moment of their careers. Let’s hope they’re up to it.
8
This is a legacy making moment in history for all of us.
I often wonder what the Trumpists will tell their children and grandchildren when questioned about why they supported a monster who tortured children.
6
Regardless of the outcome with the Kennedy replacement, it's still super crucial for Democrats to get out and vote in November to take back the Senate, because 2 additional liberal Justices, Breyer and Ginsburg, are 79 and 85 respectively, and God forbid Trump gets a chance to appoint even more Justices.
29
It's not pleasant to admit that in my younger days I fell for the so called pro-life claim of Republicans. It took me far too long to realize they were no such thing.
Anyone who is really pro-life would want to help prevent unwanted pregnancy if for no other reason than the economic burden it places on society.
The older I get the clearer it becomes, Republicans don't want to just control women's bodies, they want to control every aspect of the lives of most Americans who they view as nothing more than serfs.
150
They are pro-life for abortion issues but anti-life for gun control, climate control and many other protections the GOP and Trump are eliminating. Makes Republican sense, I guess.
11
Choose the Party or betray your gender. It's a very simple choice, with enormous consequences for ALL Women. Choose wisely.
10
Choose the Party or betray your conscience.
4
It is very unfortunate that Justice Kennedy has put us in this position. I have always admired him as a person who, although labeled a conservative, was never afraid to call it the way he saw it. He allowed the law and the realities of the situation to guide his vote, not slavish obedience to some ideology. He should reconsider and wait until things are calmer and more reasoned in the other branches of government if he cares about his legacy.
This will be a game changer. If anyone thinks that Roe v Wade can be overruled and our society (or what’s left of it) can survive that, they are sorely mistaken. This is not a pro vs anti life issue. It is about the right of more than half our society to control their own body and their right to make the attendant moral choices with their God without interference of the State. If anyone thinks we can go back to the coat hangers in dark alleys days of the pre Roe world, they are wrong.
People who are concerned for these rights need to mobilize now and prove to every Senator including Mitch McConnell that proceeding now to approve an ultra right justice will prove to be their signature on their own political death warrant come their next election. We must use the voting booth to stop this.
16
No question about that:
"It goes without saying that Trump is going to nominate a conservative justice."
Also no question that Collins and Murkowski have some influence here, but not much. Each of them voted for Gorsuch, after all, who's no abortion supporter. My hunch is that they'll press for lesser concessions -- a female nominee, for example -- but not insist that Trump nominate someone who favors abortion rights.
And, frankly, it would be pointless for Collins or Murkowski to insist that Trump nominate someone who favors abortion rights. That's never going to happen. They know that, Trump knows that, we all know that.
Bottom line: Collins and Murkowski can and should moderate Trump here, but that's all they can hope to do.
5
I have no faith in any of these people any more.
Even if the nominee claims adherence to stare decisis in the hearings, if it's a conservative in the vein of Roberts and Gorsuch we should expect a whittling down of Roe to such a degree that abortion will be functionally unavailable, even as Roe continues to stand.
I have to stop watching the Handmaid's Tale. Better to be the frog in the pot than have a window into what's coming for me and all the other women of childbearing age in this country.
18
"Pro-life"...the GOP has already shown without a doubt that for them life begins at conception and essentially ends at birth, at least for the poor of our society who will be forced to carry to birth when they haven't the means to support, etc. Collins has no "spine"...she capitulated on the tax bill based on McConnell's empty promises. Same for Murkowski. In the end, most of the "blue" states will continue freedom of choice. This will just worsen our nation's divide.
11
So am I to assume that you have to be a women to be pro choice in the Republican Party now? It does take both genders to produce the offspring. Is there no man among the Republican Senators who can see past their gender to support a women's right to choose. If so, why wait for the courts to overturn Roe, just make new law. Except this way they can say they are only following the law set down by the court and not have to explain a misogynistic vote to all of their female constituents. This just proves that the Republican party continues to be boy's club and, if women let them, will remain so.
6
I expect both to utter some words of concern, and then fold. But they'll claim they were convinced Roe would not be challenged. I'd prefer it if they'd not waste our time with their kabuki dance, and just admitted they would do what the GOP leadership instructs. It'd be more honest. Sigh.
119
Well, as one Republican to two others, I hope Sens. Collins and Murkowski don't sell their votes cheap. There must be SOME generally conservative, constructionist jurists out there who don't believe that reversing Roe v. Wade would be a good thing for our country, and wouldn’t be an immense injustice to women.
Dicker, ladies. Dicker.
4
@Richard Luettgen: Looking on the bright side, overturning Roe v Wade will be political suicide for the GOP.
2
Carson:
You could be right.
Abortion rights have nothing to do w/abortion, it's about POWER... Who has the power to control one's body, you or the white GOP w/their women supporting their racism, sexism et al...Here's what Faye Wattleton had to say - - the fear of such power is not restricted to men, for there are also women who fear claiming it for themselves and allowing it for other women.. It is deeply threatening to change the balance of power in human relationships.. It is more reassuring to have clearly defined boundaries of power than to hand over authority to those who have not traditionally been entrusted with such authority. A new order, one in which women are vested with the enormous power of choosing for themselves whether they will bring new life into this world, is more than some can tolerate or accept"... When will women be 1st class citizens is this country?
65
The GOP doesn't even want to control women's bodies so much as it wants to control power, not over women but over the whole country. The only way they get elected is by saying they are pro-life, even if secretly they are pro-choice. You have to talk the talk all the way even if you don't walk the walk. They won't get votes if they don't constantly scream that "abortion is murder". But trust me, many if not most don't really believe it.
2
You think those are the same women who wore shirts with an arrow pointing toward their groins which said "you can grab me there any time you want." White women! I'm a white woman, and I'm just appalled by these people.
If this is really the last hope, we should plan on being disappointed, as I truly doubt that they will be the principled firewall against the choices that Trump sends for confirmation.
35
I would think that being women, both Senators Collins and Murkowski know within themselves that the right to decide with one's doctor whether or not to terminate one's own pregnancy is a vital part of one's own life in America.
When the Supreme Court case of "Roe vs. Wade" was argued and then decided in 1973, the court was not asked to rule on whether or not abortion should be legalized, but whether or not a woman had the legal right to make a private medical decision (in this case, abortion) between herself and her doctor--the issue the court decided on was for the protection of women's privacy in America.
Forty-five years after that landmark decision, women are once again facing the prospect of not being in control of their own private decisions.
Let us hope that the confirmation process for a Supreme Court nominee made by Mr. Trump will reflect the total unwillingness on the part of most senators to ever jeopardize American women's freedom.
60
It goes without saying that Trump is going to nominate a conservative justice. The only question on the table seems to be whether he will appoint a moderate or a hard liner who has passed the litmus test and will vote against womens' reproductive rights, and who will side with the conservatives on every issue.
Only the Senate can compel him to nominate a moderate, and they're racing the clock to get it done before the midterm elections, when theoretically the Democrats could gain control of the Senate.
This situation is exactly why the Constitution gives the Senate the task of confirming Supreme Court justices, so it can act as a moderating influence on the president.
The pressure is on. It's going to be a wild ride.
15
I used to think maybe Ivanka could compel him too...we know she doesn't really buy into that ultra conservative stance...but now I'm not so sure.
1
aem - Ivanka is just a better looking version of her father.
Don't forget the Senators from Colorado, Wisconsin, Florida, Indiana, Ohio, Iowa and North Carolina.
The pressure needs to be turned up on the Republican senators representing the aforementioned seven states.
72
P.S. We, who support privacy and civil rights and the separation of church and state, need an overarching organization to lead this fight for a justice who would uphold our privacy and civil rights and the separation of church and state. The very important health-care rights of women is one of several major issues in this fight for the selection of a new justice for the Supreme Court of the United States.
15
We have one. It’s called the Democratic Party
I don't think the Democratic Party has the fire in the belly to conduct this fight. Alas, many in the Democratic Party show no interest in fighting for the average citizen who will be harmed by a rabid right-wing justice. I keep remembering Chuck Schumer joining with Trump to scold Rep. Maxine Waters; very disgusting.
Susan Collins will do what she always does, claim she gets some assurance, goes along with whatever pick they have, and when her assurance is not fulfilled, she'll make up some argument of it being fulfilled. In the end, she will secure some other bribe directed at her state while arguing she is still a principled moderate.
Do not forget the tax vote where she claimed McConnell promised her a vote on an Obamacare fix, this is that vote all over again. Unfortunately, the only way forward is to vote out the moderate Republicans, which will further lead to a polarized Senate.
206
And she also was lock-step with her fellow Republicans in voting against ObamaCare when it was originally passed. If it had been up to her it wouldn't have been there for her to support if she had had her way originally.
9
I swore that - at least this morning - that I would not point out the hypocrisy of Susan Collins.
So thank you for doing it for me.
13
The far right has taken far more power than it should have, and here is an opportunity for more moderate Republicans to exercise their strength, if they are really moderates. Just as the far right has laid down the line and held legislation hostage, Senator Collins and Senator Murkowski, could stop Mr. Trump from putting a highly politically charged judge on the bench. The rights of all of us will be impacted by an unbending right wing judge, but women, the LGBQT community, minority voters, and people in need of health care, could have their government turn against them if the wrong justice is seated. Senators, you have an obligation to the people in this country, not the politicians in your caucus.
60
Why are liberals so afraid of justices who would apply the law in a calm and even handed fashion?
I would like those types of justices, but Republicans give us judges who change their interpretation of the law to suit the party. For example, when they went against the voters and gave us Bush.
Because such human justices do not exist.
Murkowski and Collins are Trump apologists who only stood up to Trump on the Obamacare Repeal. They did not object to the theft of the Supreme Court nomination from Obama. So they will fall in line with McConnell on this nomination.
250
And don't forget McCain's vote against the repeal was a last minute shock -- not sure either would have had the "courage" to vote against it if they thought it really mattered. When they made their choice it didn't. They usually only vote against the party line when the party is going to get its way anyway.
I remember Susan Collins in a tiny little voice saying that she thought a hearing should be given to President Obama's selection for the Supreme Court. Mitch throws her a bone for her vote and she believes it and cuts millions off of healthcare. And gets nothing in return.
Ms.Collins stood strongly against repealing the ACA because it would eliminate 20-25 million people from health insurance coverage. But wait, she was bought off by Mr. McConnell to sign on to the now infamous tax cut bill because only 11 million people would be removed from the roles. But, she was promised by Mr. McConnell that issue would be taken up later. I believe we are still waiting for that empty promise.
Ms. Murkowski fought strongly against the repeal of ACA, but she too was bought off by Mr. McConnell to sign on to that same infamous tax cut bill. The payoff; assuring Ms. Murkowski that passage of legislation to open up drilling in ANWAR would be done and signed by Mr. Trump.
Count me as skeptical that either of these women will stand up for the rights of women. They both appear to be easily bought off my Mr. McConnell and Mr. Trump. I believe these two women have provided clear examples of just how much at risk Roe v Wade really is now.
231
Roe is done. The two senators will cave to party pressure. We might even lose one or two Democratic senators in red states. The candidate will say whatever he or she thinks they have to to get confirmed. The assurances of respect for settled law will flow like water. It's all smoke and mirrors.
Because of apathy and low voter turnout, the fundamentalists have won and set the clock back decades. People don't appreciate their rights until they are taken from them and they are abut to taken from them.
I don't want this to happen, but sooner or later, teenage Mary Joe is going to get pregnant from Bobby Rae out behind the barn. She will panic and end up in some back ally "clinic", get butchered and end up in intensive care, or dead. Women for Trump!
323
Bruce Rozenblit, I agree 100% with your dire prognosis.
To your reasons for fundamentalists winning and setting back the clock, I would add: severely gerrymandered districts; an outdated electoral college system (putting 2 of the last 5 presidents, including the current, in office despite losing the popular vote); the overwhelming influence of big money to buy candidates and their support for narrow interests; and the pervasive and corrosive effect of right wing opinion and propaganda, also reflecting big money and narrow interests, being confused with news and information.
6
@Bruce Rozenblit: Overturning Roe v Wade will be political suicide for the GOP. It won’t put an end to abortion—history has shown that women determined to end pregnancies find ways to do so. The practical impact will be drastically reduced access to abortion in areas dominated by Republicans. Living in the Red States will become even more like living in Third World countries. You’re hurting yourselves, GOP. Go ahead.
5
Not just abortion, but birth control is also going to be going away. It isn’t just Roe, it’s Griswold. And make no mistake they’ll pass a federal law to outlaw both abortion and birth control. The only recourse blue majority states will have to protect our rights will be secession.
3
This is why we need more women in politics.
We have by default relegated our futures to old white men who are only interested in their own political fortunes and not the fates of those not like them.
I hope that Collins and Murkowski do the right thing and suggest a compromise candidate, but I am not going to hold my breath. Anyone who self identifies as a Republican these days cannot be counted on to support the rights of women.
167
Let me remind you: Michelle Bachmann. Sarah Palin. Joni Ernst.
As for “old white men,” I would gladly entrust my future to Justice William Brennan and - over the three women mentioned above, as well as Senators Collins and Murkowski (both of whom can’t be trusted not to sell out when critical issues are at stake) - Bernie Sanders.
“More women in politics” isn’t the answer - “the right people in politics” is.
2
Thirty years ago I thought more women in politics would be a good thing but the came women like Michelle Bachman,
Sarah Palin, Jan Brewer, Marsha Blackburn and Diane Black; all bad, all sellouts.
1
"This is why we need more women in politics. "
You mean more women who agree with you. There are plenty of women in politics who are anti-abortion.
The best that we can hope for with Murkowski and Collins is that they convince Trump to nominate someone who is not on that list of 25 right-wing judicial activists. This would not be someone who is better than a Pryor or a Kavanaugh, but someone whose political/legal views aren't as clearly documented and thus less predictably terrible. This would give Murkowski and Collins (and Manchin, Heidkamp, Donnelly, etc.) the plausible deniability they need to confirm a replacement. If the vote is 50-49 and Roe is ultimately overruled, then history will not be kind to Murkowski and Collins. They surely understand that, and will want to avoid a place in the history books as the women who killed reproductive rights in America. But if the vote is something like 54-45 with a few red-state Democrats voting in favor, Collins and Murkowski will avoid historical infamy.
Here's a reality check for my fellow liberals: this would be an ok result. Given our current political reality, a "blank slate" nominee would be a better bet to be a non-catastrophic justice than any of the 25 names that Sessions/McConnell have prepared for Trump. And it would greatly help Senate Democrats heading into November to have this judicial fight resolved before then. Nothing animates turnout for the religious right like abortion, and turning this election into a referendum on abortion in places like Missouri and Indiana and West Virginia would not benefit the Democratic Senate incumbents in those states.
30
You'll note that Gary Cohn, Reince Priebus, John Kelly, H.R. McMaster, Rex Tillerson, and the on-increaslingly-thin-ice General James Mattis have been unable to "convince" Trump of anything. Do you really think he will be swayed by two women, particularly two women he would categorize as unattractive "dogs" (his word)?
Also, as we've seen, whenever he is challenged, Trump doubles down. SoI expect the "List" will not only stand, it will be winnowed down to exclude all but the worst names on it.
There's a difference here. Trump doesn't know anything about judges or the law, nor does he care. Remember, this is the guy who said that his sister - a liberal federal appellate judge appointed by Bill Clinton - would be a great SCOTUS justice. The question is not if someone will convince Trump, but whether it will be Ryan/McConnell or Collins/Murkowski who convince him.
It is very likely that Ms. Collins and Ms. Murkowski will vote for the Supreme Court nominee that is chosen by President Trump. They voted for Neal Gorsuch who was considered a conservative so they will probably vote for the next conservative brought before the senate. They do not want to alienate any of their party members or their constituents in their states. I would imagine they will vote along party lines.
It is never certain how a justice will vote on a case as was evidenced by the voting record of Justice Kennedy. His vote often surprised the conservatives who thought they were on his side. He kept everyone in the dark until the actual case was decided.
The pro life/pro choice debate has been one of the most contentious decisions ever to have been brought before the Supreme Court and still has brought division to our country. We have seen both sides recently win in the battle for their side so no one really knows the fate of Roe v Wade. Will it stay or will it go? It may just be tweaked and allow the states to have the final say once and for all. Even then it may not ever be over.
What holds more weight in the decision: a woman's right to choose and owning the control of her own body or saving innocent fetuses/babies in the womb. The answer depends on which side you are on.
We will know soon the decisions of both of these moderate Republican women when the Supreme Court justice is brought to the floor for a vote. Until then it is anyone's guess.
17
"What holds more weight in the decision: a woman's right to choose and owning the control of her own body or saving innocent fetuses/babies in the womb."
Well, obviously, the first. If your position was correct, we would require people to donate blood and organs against their will. We don't. If your position were correct, we could harvest organs from bodies without their owner's previous consent. We don't.
You don't get to "save" someone by telling ME to donate my body to the cause. Did you learn not to touch bodies that aren't yours when you were a toddler?
You think a living, breathing, sentient woman with a life should have more rights not only than an embryo that cannot sustain its own life outside her body, but also fewer rights than a dead person.
You heard it here first, folks: anti-choicers believe women should have less agency than dead bodies.
1
OK, this is the issue people should be (politely) taking to the streets to advocate over because only a small minority of people want to make abortion illegal. This is a winning issue, and why the Democrats are tangled up in a messaging knot I could not tell you.
The time has come to flood your senators phone lines and mailboxes. The time has come to put them in fear of re-election over an issue that nearly 4 out of 5 voters can find some consensus on. We need a swing vote on the high court that will not cause the average voter to despair of justice. THAT is what is at stake.
56
If you think that only a small minority of people want to make abortion illegal again, you do not get out of your bubble much.
Republicans feel pretty strongly about this. Enough so that they all voted for Trump knowing that they would get a Supreme Court judge that would vote their way. It is pretty much all they talk about. They did not care about his marriages, his assaulting women and bragging, his bankruptcies or anything else...they just wanted to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Susan Collins’ press secretary told the Portland (Maine) Press Herald yesterday that the Senator would not use an “ideological litmus test” in evaluating the next Supreme Court nominee, since she thinks that Roe v. Wade is “settled law.”
This is typical Susan Collins, as we in Maine know her - come up with some plausible-sounding (to the national media) statement that gives the appearance that she’s deliberating and allows her to be quoted and courted - until the issue is down to the wire. Then she’ll invariably vote the GOP party line, sometimes saying she’s received assurances of some deal or another to secure her vote, which somehow (mysteriously) never comes to fruition (oops!)
Why do the media - and particularly this newspaper - fall for this time and time again? The Myth of The Moderate Senator From Maine. Ayuh - look at her voting record: party line 90%+ of the time. You bet that the GOP will use a litmus test for Justice Kennedy’s replacement - and Susan Collins’ vote will tell you that she did, too. Just watch.
155
Olenska, I will take your word before political pundits and their hypotheses. You know your state and your representatives well. Even here in CA, many of us will not hold our breath when it comes to Senator Collins. Her agenda is no more compassionate or empathetic than her fellow Republicans'. It is a sad day in America when a woman in power succumbs to power itself at the expense of her national sisters' human rights. We need to remember what our legislative branch (as well as Trump) is doing to our God-given rights to our own bodies and souls. We may lose this battle, but we will get justice back, I believe, in but a few years. No government, no man-made religion, is above the universal moral code.
Just because she initially sounds as if she’s in her right mind, her evil twin always shows up at the wrong time.
3
It's a red herring. *She* won't use an “ideological litmus test”...
...because that's her male bosses' job.
1
Women of means will visit Canada, Mexico or Europe. Women in poverty and their families will suffer greatly. The GOP offers no support to women or families interested in raising children. #goingbackwards
I have basically lost all faith in this country. The US will not be counted among the great nations of the future. We do not invest in or care about our citizens, it is that simple.
168
Or maybe people will use birth control more consistently. Or maybe, just maybe, women won't have sex with men who refuse to marry them when they get pregnant.
Or they will just move to Seattle where we pretty much do what we want in spite of the other Washington.
Pot is legal here but not legal nationally. Its a sanctuary city while other cities have ICE getting on buses.
1
Get a grip! They are coming for birth control next.
2
Murkowski and Collins have the opportunity to stand up for women, but they will stand up for Trump and the Republican Party and Roe vs. Wade will go down as past history.
Watch and see.
As I write this Donald Trump is bragging on stage that America is bringing back its wealth. So that about says it all. He is laughing in back rooms about women’s rights, and very jovial about in press releases about money. That’s where he’s been at, and will always be at. Never mind anything else.
61
All of this assumes that all the Democrats are in lockstep and will vote as a unified block. However, Senators Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Joe Manchin of West Virginia are in tough races and will probably go along with whomever the nominee is. The are afraid of the "tweet". This nomination will dictate how the court votes for a generation. God forbid that Justice Ginsburg or Justice Breyer were to retire before the next presidential election. The rhetoric of the president is telling. He wants a pro life anti Roe nominee. He wants a conservative who would make Justice Scalia appear to be a liberal. Republicans such as Ms. Collins and Ms. Murkowski need assistance from moderate republicans to do the right thing. Senators Flake and Corker should vote their conscience along with anyone else that doesn't want to see this country retreat to the 50's the 1850's.
49
There is no such thing as a "moderate Republican'.
3
The re-election of Senators Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Joe Manchin of West Virginia has little to do with advancing a the progressive agenda this country needs. Cast them adrift unless they pledge to oppose anyone nominated before the mid-term election.
With selfish Democrats such as the ones you mentioned, they might as well be replaced with moderate Republicans.
I would like to think the Republican women in the senate would consider their place in the scheme of equal rights and self-determination, but I'm not hopeful.
First of all, any dissent at all, no matter how principled, will unleash the childish wrath of Donald, the Trump. Second, the nominees have all been schooled and vetted so they won't misstate anything important and they won't surprise anyone when it's time to vote.
I suspect Senators Collins and Murkowski will enjoy the media attention, but McConnell isn't afraid to strong arm his caucus when it suits him.
This appointment will outlast most of the people in Congress.
20
it will outlast me. Sad.
The chances that five justices on the Supreme Court will overturn Roe v. Wade are zero. Not going to happen. Sure, they may chip away at it, but courts already have. In many states abortions are hard to get already.
Truth is, abortion is more a social issue than a legal one. Judges should not be deciding whether or not abortion is legal. Politically accountable, elected lawmakers should be the ones deciding. That they are not is a danger to our democracy.
20
I wish you were correct, but this time I fear you are not. We are entering a world where "legislating from the bench" is becoming a norm and judges at all levels will be appointed specifically to back-door legislate. A very scary proposition for sure.
3
Overturning Roe is legislating from the bench? What are you smoking? Roe v Wade was the quintessential example of judicial legislative activism. It created rights where none existed before. Overruling it would be an act of judicial restraint of the originalist kind.
Mr. Smithson, I believe that it's a fundamental error to classify abortion as a legal or a political issue.
It's a woman's right to make her own decisions about whether to carry a pregnancy to term or to abort--privately or in conjunction with the people she chooses to consult about that decision.
And since that opinion is at odds with the point of view of politicians and judges and some religious groups in the US and in the world, I and other women who are convinced our bodies are our own responsibility will keep on keeping on.
And yes, Roe v Wade can well be overturned--if not in toto, at least incrementally. Access to information about birth control, information about the abortion option, and to family planning resources has already experienced severe cutbacks in the US.
Look around. So much that so many thought "could never happen here" is happening. And that's the present reality.
1
Let's see, what are the facts? Women in red states get abortions at a higher rate than blue states. The redder the state the higher the rate of abortion. The poorer the state, the higher the rate of abortion. So who are these senators representing? Obviously not their real constituents. Too bad senators, the "president" and the trumpanistas do not care about facts. They are about to find out exactly how many women in their states get abortions, and how many will die due to botched abortions.
38
Joe - they don't care.
" ... and how many will die due to botched abortions."
They don't care about that either.
The women in red states who get abortions need to be educated on how voting impacts their rights to choose.
If it wasn't so sad, it would be a joke. Your United States of America is a backward looking country. No affordable heath care, no country wide gay rights, no country wide women's right to abortions. You sort of get to a point where things are looking up and then boom, you elect a man like Donald Trump. He can't wait to turn every upside down. And just wait for the big recession he's going to cause with this good idea of tariffs for his allies. Everyone is going to suffer.
52
It all goes back to the assassinations, Vietnam, Nixon, and especially when Saint Ronnie and the Christian Coalition struck the fatal blow of making faith more important than facts, P. S. What hypocrites! Both strongly supported abortion until it got in the way of their quest for power. Nancy Reagan as Mother Hubbard? Pull-eze. And their best friends were the Bloomingdales, who swung from the rooftops. George Bush and Lee Atwater? What a quinella.
Please keep in mind that we voted overwhelmingly for Hillary. In any other election, 3 million votes would have won her the election. Putin and Comey interfered in ways we still cannot fathom.
Most of us are as miserable as you are about this horrible so-called potus.
2
Believe me, many of us want to leave. And those who don't, want to secede, I am a proud blue state east coast resident and I would be THRILLED to separate from the interior wasteland. Aside from a few urban pockets, red states do nothing but steal our money and hypocritically moralize the blue states.
1
Poor women will have children they can not afford and stay impoverished, or perhaps die in a back alley abortion. Rich women will not. It's nothing like real religion motivating this.
9