Since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, Democrats have been the ones to go after Republicans for their anti-abortion records on the campaign trail.
That did not exactly happen in Tuesday’s Maine Senate debate.
Democratic candidate Troy Jackson pressed Republican Sen. Susan Collins on whether she regretted her vote to confirm now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in 2018 after he voted to overturn Roe v. Wade four years ago. But Collins fought back.
“First of all, when I evaluate Supreme Court justice nominees, I always look at their qualifications, their experience, whether they’re fit to serve on the court,” Collins responded. “I clearly don’t agree with how Brett Kavanaugh voted on Roe v. Wade.”
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She then added: “I would point out that there’s only one of us on this stage who has always been pro-choice, and that’s me.”
During his time in the Maine State Senate, Jackson supported some anti-abortion bills, including one to give legal standing to a fetus in the event of an attack on a pregnant patient, and another to require a 24-hour waiting period before a patient can get an abortion. In 2012, he reportedly identified himself as anti-abortion in a questionnaire administered by Project Vote Smart and said that public funding should not go to abortion.
“I would point out that it’s Troy who, until 2013, supported such extreme positions that he would not allow exceptions for a woman to have an abortion, even if her life were at stake or in cases of rape and incest,” Collins said.
While Jackson recently said that he was “wrong on the issue” and that he has supported abortion access for over a decade, he did not directly comment in the debate on his voting record supporting restrictions.
“I mean, Brett Kavanaugh was against abortion when she met with him, she knew that was going to happen, and now after it’s been overturned, she doesn’t regret the vote,” Jackson, appearing to stumble, said when the moderator asked if he wanted to respond to Collins.
Collins said that Kavanaugh “should not have said [Roe v. Wade] was settled law” during his confirmation hearing, “because, to me, that meant that it would not be overturned, but to be fair, you cannot ask a nominee how he might vote on some hypothetical future case.”
The Maine Republican is one of only two Senate Republicans who support abortion rights, along with Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Collins has led and supported legislation aimed at increasing abortion access, and was one of only three Republicans to vote against the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which cut funding for Planned Parenthood for a year.
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