If Kavanaugh is confirmed, what’s left of our health care and the rights we’ve spent decades fighting for could disappear.
A year ago, President Trump tweeted out his intention to "let Obamacare implode," after the second failed attempt by Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) during his term. And while the efforts to legislatively undo ACA protections were largely unsuccessful — thanks to the incredible grassroots mobilization of millions of women, men, and young people — the Trump-Pence administration has continued to take every opportunity to sabotage affordable health care.
After attacking the Affordable Care Act and access to care at Planned Parenthood for a year, President Trump signed a “tax law” that was estimated to result in 13 million people losing health care. The Department of Health and Human Services then tried to eliminate the guarantee that health insurance will cover birth control.
Now, Trump and his appointees are trying to impose a “gag rule” on the Title X — the nation’s program for affordable birth control and reproductive health care — to force doctors to withhold critical information from their patients. And Trump’s administration has issued a rule that will weaken protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
At the same time, Trump’s Department of Justice recently declined to defend the Affordable Care Act in the federal courts. Most recently, the administration suspended payments to insurers that keep costs down. All of this has resulted in spikes in premium rates and millions of people losing coverage.
Now, with the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, Trump has an opportunity to tip the balance away from our constitutional right to access abortion and affordable health care.
The stakes couldn’t be higher: If Kavanaugh is confirmed, what’s left of our health care and the rights we’ve spent decades fighting for could disappear.
Here’s what we know about Kavanaugh:
-
Just last year, he attempted to use his judicial power to prevent a young, undocumented woman in U.S. custody from accessing a safe, legal abortion for over a month — pushing her into the second trimester. Fortunately, the court on which Kavanaugh sits intervened and allowed the woman to access the health care she needed.
-
Kavanaugh authored a dissenting opinion in the D.C. Circuit’s 2015 ruling on the Affordable Care Act’s birth control benefit. He wrote that he believed employers have the right to deny their employees health insurance coverage for birth control.
-
During an oral argument in a case challenging the ACA’s individual mandate, Kavanaugh suggested that the entire ACA should be struck down because the individual mandate was repealed. Jeff Sessions’s Department of Justice agrees and has taken the unprecedented step of refusing to defend the ACA in court.
-
Kavanaugh has been vetted by, and is a contributor to, the Federalist Society — a right-wing legal association that doesn’t believe a woman should have the constitutional right to access abortion safely and legally in this country.
-
Kavanaugh has also been given the seal of approval by the right-wing Heritage Foundation, a group devoted to, among other things, overturning Roe v. Wade. They’ve pledged to spend 11.5 million dollars to get him confirmed.
Cases on the Affordable Care Act will come before the Supreme Court because Trump told us, and we take him at his word.
If confirmed, Kavanaugh would help determine the future of voting rights, LGBTQ rights, the environment, and the right to be free from discrimination in this country.
The stakes are too high for senators to allow Kavanaugh to dodge questions or give vague answers about precedent.
We need a nominee who will uphold our constitutional right to make personal decisions about our bodies and our lives.
The good news is that the public is on our side. We held off attacks on the ACA for over seven years, including one year with Trump and Congress doing all they could to dismantle the program. Seventy-two percent of Americans support access to abortion, including a majority of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans.
The Senate must only confirm a justice who affirms that they believe the U.S. Constitution protects individual liberty and the right of all people to make personal decisions about their bodies and personal relationships — including the right to parent, use contraception, have an abortion, and marry whomever they want.
Take Action!
Send a message to your senators and demand they BLOCK Kavanaugh’s nomination — and any nominee who would threaten our access to health care and our right to safe, legal abortion.
Tags: Affordable Care Act
Is Abortion Still Legal in My State?
Learn about abortion access changes in your state.
Demand court reform now!
To protect and advance our rights, we must reclaim our federal courts.
Structural, systemic, and meaningful court reform is the only way to ensure that courts uphold the law and protect our rights.
Planned Parenthood Action Fund Will NEVER Back Down
Know this: our right to abortion is not debatable. We will rebuild and reclaim the freedom that is ours.