Planned Parenthood supporters to share personal stories of abortion, birth control in response to Judge Kavanaugh nomination

Will ask Senators Collins and King to oppose Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination to the US Supreme Court

A delegation of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England and Maine Action Fund supporters will travel to Washington DC tomorrow to meet with Senator Angus King and key staff with Senator Susan Collins. At the meeting, they will share their personal stories about abortion, birth control and access to health care as well as hand deliver letters from more than fifty other constituents urging her to oppose Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court.

Since Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination, Planned Parenthood supporters have written hundreds of letters to Senator Collins sharing their personal experiences with abortion, birth control, LGBTQ rights, and affordable health care and how their experiences inform their fears and distrust of Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination

Susan Johnston, Cape Elizabeth, obtained an illegal abortion pre-Roe v. Wade:

“56 years ago I got pregnant. I had an abortion. It seems like a lifetime ago, and it was. It was before Roe v. Wade was legal. It was before the pill was invented. It was before birth control was legal. It was the dark ages for women’s right to choose. There was no choice. We seem to be heading there again...I’m 73 now, and representing my generation. Many of those women were not as luck as I was. They died. I am their voice. I need you to be my voice.”

Casey Ryan, Falmouth, a college student:

“As a twenty year old female college student looking to attend grad school, access to safe, affordable, non-judgmental healthcare has been essential in my ability to take care of myself and move toward my goal of becoming an advocate.”

Katie, Portland, an alumna of St. Lawrence University, Senator Collins’ alma mater:

“St. Lawrence expanded my horizons just as it expanded yours, Senator Collins, molding me into the strong, smart woman I am today; yet none of this would have been possible without access to safe, legal abortion. In 2013, I underwent a surgical abortion after discovering that I was pregnant at the age of 16. I was on the pill a the time. My boyfriend and I used other contraceptive measures. At the time, I was neither financially, emotionally, nor physically equipped to have a child. I did not come from a family with excessive means - the year that I had an abortion was also the year in which my family went without hot water for a month - and I was in an emotionally as well as physically abusive relationship.”

Susan, Casey, Katie, and other supporters will share their stories and their concerns with Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination tomorrow afternoon with Senator Collins at her office in Washington D.C.

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