Senate Democrats are trying to cast doubt on Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s character because she is a devout Catholic who believes that killing unborn babies in abortions is “barbaric.”
On Tuesday, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Attorney General William Barr criticizing Barrett for not disclosing to the U.S. Senate an open letter that she signed in 2006 opposing abortion on demand, the Washington Times reports.
Barrett, a judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, is President Donald Trump’s third nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court. If the Senate confirms her, she would fill the seat of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, an idol of abortion activists, and solidify a 6-3 conservative majority on the high court.
Her confirmation hearing is scheduled to begin next week.
In the letter, led by pro-abortion U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the Democrats questioned why Barrett did not include the 2006 pro-life letter in the documents that she submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“The failure to disclose the 2006 letter leads to additional questions about other potentially missing materials. The omission also raises concerns that the process of collecting materials […] like the nomination process itself, has been rushed, for no legitimate reason,” they wrote.
SIGN THE PETITION: Vote to Confirm Supreme Court Nominee Amy Coney Barrett
The 2006 letter was published as a newspaper advertisement sponsored by St. Joseph County Right to Life in South Bend, Indiana.
“The Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalized abortion for any reason,” the ad states. “Now, after more than thirty-two years under Roe more than 47 million unborn children have been aborted. … It’s time to put an end to the barbaric legacy of Roe v. Wade and restore laws that protect the lives of unborn children.”
The ad also displayed hundreds of signatures from Indiana residents, including Barrett’s, along with the statement, “We, the following citizens of Michiana, oppose abortion on demand and defend the right to life from fertilization to natural death.”
Politico reports Feinstein’s letter implied Barrett may have purposefully omitted the document, claiming, “This raises additional questions as to why Judge Barrett did not disclose the 2006 letter.”
However, a White House spokesperson said the Senate questionnaire does not require such submissions.
“… the Committee’s questionnaire requires disclosure of material that a candidate has ‘written or edited’ … Judge Barrett neither wrote nor edited the ad in question,” the statement said.
Barrett’s conservative, pro-life views are the real reason Democrat leaders oppose her confirmation.
Here’s more from the Washington Times:
The lawmakers also are alarmed that while serving as a federal appeals court judge for three years, Judge Barrett has twice upheld restrictions on abortion.
“She would uphold the restrictions that states have imposed — in fact, more than 450 such restrictions over the past decade — on access to abortion and reproductive rights services. There are about seventeen cases that are one step away from consideration in the Supreme Court, ranging from the 15-week abortion ban from Mississippi to waiting periods in Indiana,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut Democrat.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell slammed Democrats for their bigoted attacks on Barrett.
“United States senators are suggesting that Judge Barrett is too Christian, or the wrong kind of Christian, to be a good judge,” the Kentucky Republican said. “These disgraceful attacks only reinforce why it is crucial to confirm judges like Judge Barrett who understand and respect our Constitution, including its protections for all Americans’ religious liberty.”
Democrat leaders and their allies in the abortion industry have been attacking Barrett for her Catholic beliefs and her family. Barrett is the mother of seven children, including two who were adopted and one with special needs.
A former clerk of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, she has been described as an “originalist” judge. Though her judicial rulings on abortion are few, she did rule in support of two Indiana pro-life laws during her time on the Seventh Circuit.
Barrett was a member of the Notre Dame University Faculty for Life Group from 2010 to 2016, and she received an award from the Thomas More Society, a pro-life Catholic legal group, in 2018.
She also has made several statements about the value of babies in the womb. According to the Law and Crime blog, Barrett signed a public letter in 2015 that emphasized “the value of human life from conception to natural death.” She also said she believes that life begins at conception.
According to a recent analysis by the Law and Crime blog, Barrett’s statements and writings about Supreme Court abortion cases as well as stare decisis, which means following past legal precedents, also suggest that she may rule to restore protections for unborn babies.
Pro-life leaders have praised Barrett as an excellent choice for the court.
The U.S. Senate scheduled her confirmation hearing for Oct. 12.
