According to CNN , President Trump has not yet discussed reproductive rights or the future of Roe v. Wade with his new Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh.
When asked about it by a reporter Tuesday morning, the president responded, “No I haven’t. I really haven’t.” Trump then went on to praise his televised Supreme Court nominee announcement on Monday night, claiming that Kavanaugh “got rave reviews, actually from both sides. It’s a beautiful thing to watch.”
Kavanaugh’s predecessor, Justice Anthony Kennedy, was a swing-vote for many critical Supreme Court rulings, having changed the tide of history by voting in favor of marriage equality and Roe v. Wade.
Trump has long vowed throughout his presidency to nominate and appoint pro-life Supreme Court justices if given the opportunity. Now that he has nominated someone, it is unclear whether or not the settled issue of abortion will be reopened or overturned.
Most Senate Democrats and a handful of Republicans have previously stated they “will not support a Supreme Court nominee who does not view the Roe v. Wade decision as a settled issue.”
Back in October 2017, Kavanaugh dissented a DC circuit court ruling about whether or not “an undocumented immigrant teen in detention was entitled to seek an abortion.”
In his dissent, Brett Kavanaugh wrote, “The government has permissible interests in favoring fetal life, protecting the best interests of a minor, and refraining from facilitating abortion,” adding that the Supreme Court has “held that the government may further those interests so long as it does not impose an undue burden on a woman seeking an abortion.” Kavanaugh also claimed that the general consensus and opinion is and was “based on a constitutional principle as novel as it is wrong: a new right for unlawful immigrant minors in US government detention to obtain immediate abortion on demand.” Toward the end of his dissent, however, he confirmed that “all parties to this case recognize Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey as precedents we must follow.”
When pressed by Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer in 2006 about his personal view of abortion, Kavanaugh replied, “I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to give a personal view on that case.” While being considered to be nominated to serve on the DC circuit court, however, Kavanaugh said that, if confirmed, he “would follow Roe v. Wade faithfully and fully. That would be binding precedent of the court. It has been decided by the Supreme Court.”
