What’s At Stake

  • President Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh puts women’s constitutional rights, including abortion, at risk.
  • The process has been flawed from the start. Trump promised to nominate only justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade and dismantle the Affordable Care Act (ACA). We must take Trump at his word – and every senator should too.
  • Kavanaugh will turn the balance of the Supreme Court against women’s constitutional rights, including abortion.
  • This is about people’s freedom and opportunity to control their lives at the most basic level: their bodies, their families, and their future.
  • We need and deserve a justice who will protect the constitutional rights of all persons, not just the wealthy and powerful.
  • We need a justice who believes that the Constitution protects the individual right of all people to make personal decisions about their bodies and relationships – including the rights to use birth control and have an abortion.
  • The Senate must reject Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court.

 

Reproductive Rights

  • President Trump has repeatedly promised to nominate only justices to the U.S. Supreme Court who will overturn Roe v. Wade.
  • Kavanaugh has argued for bosses overriding women’s access to birth control.
  • Kavanaugh has ruled in favor of government overreach to restrict women’s access to safe, legal abortion.
  • With this nomination, women’s ability to make decisions about our own bodies and lives is at stake.
  • Abortion opponents are already pushing cases challenging Roe through the lower courts, and at least 20 states are poised to immediately seek to ban abortion if Roe is overturned. If Roe is overturned, women of color and those struggling to make ends meet will suffer the most.
  • Since 2011, politicians have passed 401 new laws against abortion in 33 states across the country that shame, pressure, and punish women who have decided to have an abortion.

 

Health Care and the Affordable Care Act

  • The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is on the line. Trump promised to appoint a nominee who would dismantle the ACA.
  • Judge Kavanaugh has criticized the Affordable Care Act and could vote to allow insurance companies to deny coverage to people for pre-existing conditions.
  • Without the ACA’s protection for people with pre-existing conditions, we could be dragged back to the days when having a cesarean delivery or even receiving treatment for rape was considered a pre-existing condition that limited access to health insurance.
  • Being a woman could once again be considered a pre-existing condition and a reason to deny women health insurance coverage.

 

Employment

  • Kavanaugh has repeatedly ruled against workers pursuing claims of employment discrimination. He built his judicial career by continuously siding with big employers against working people. If confirmed as a Supreme Court justice, Kavanaugh would tip the balance of power even further in favor of corporate interests.
  • People who face workplace harassment and other forms of discrimination need to be able to hold their harassers accountable. But Kavanaugh sees anti-discrimination protection for employees as a burden for employers.
  • We cannot allow the balance of the Court to shift further in favor of corporate interests and against hard-won protections for working people. What we need is a justice who will uphold workers’ rights, including protecting workers from sexual harassment.

 

Education

  • Kavanaugh is aligned with Betsy DeVos’ plot to restrict students’ rights and expand school vouchers.
  • Kavanaugh was hand-picked by right-wing groups that oppose Title IX. Instead of thinking of ways to keep victims of sexual assault in school, these groups want special rights for accused rapists and have filed transphobic lawsuits demanding that schools police bathrooms. They support Kavanaugh because of his record of ruling against students and young people seeking fair access to school.
  • As a judge, Kavanaugh sought to restrict the rights of students with disabilities. This hostility to laws that protect the rights of children with disabilities spells danger for all students.

 

Key Polling Results to Use

  • Voters support abortion rights. Seven in ten are opposed to the Supreme Court restricting women’s constitutional rights, including abortion. This includes 87% of Democrats, 86% of Independents, and 54% of Republicans.
  • A majority of voters of all political leanings say it is important to them personally that a new Supreme Court justice rule to uphold women’s constitutional rights, including abortion (71% of Independents, 91% of Democrats, and 60% of Republicans).
  • Voters are twice as likely to support, rather than oppose, senators who vote for a nominee who would uphold Roe v. Wade. And voters are twice as likely to support a candidate for elected office who supports women’s rights on abortion.
  • More than 93 percent of voters want the Supreme Court to uphold laws that protect people with pre-existing conditions from being denied insurance coverage.
  • Eighty percent of voters are opposed to the Supreme Court ruling to restrict access to birth control.
  • Voters want full and complete answers from Kavanaugh on their individual rights and liberties. Eighty-seven percent of likely voters, including 82% of Republicans, said it was important to them that Kavanaugh discuss his beliefs on whether the Constitution protects the individual right of all people to make personal decisions about their bodies and relationships, including the right to use contraception and to have an abortion.