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| Sen. Tamy Duckworth (D-IL) |
In this response, she paints Barrett as an extreme "anti-choice" judicial activist who supports "arresting mothers who use IVF [in-vitro fertilization] in the future" because she "associated herself with an Indiana organization, St. Joseph County Right to Life." Because St. Joseph County Right to Life has said it would support criminalizing the disposal of frozen embryos, Duckworth called her association with the organization "disqualifying".
Barrett did sign her name for a newspaper advertisement supporting the right to life, but that advertisement did not reference the issue of IVF.
Duckworth's written response goes on to argue that Barrett would rule against the Affordable Care Act and that the Republican party should abstain from nominating or accepting Supreme Court Justices during an election. The former of these has little basis in reason. During the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings last week, Judge Barrett said that the Supreme Court would need to consider whether to remove the individual mandate from the Affordable Care Act while allowing other aspects of it to remain standing. The outcry against a new Trump Supreme Court nominee at this time is purely a partisan argument. Voters have little reason to believe that the situation would be any different if the parties were reversed.
Many pundits predict that the committee vote will be strictly along party lines. Republicans would accept Judge Barrett's nomination, and Democrats would reject her. Because Republicans have the majority in the Senate, Barrett is likely to be accepted by both the Senate Judiciary Committee and the full Senate.
